TOMMY BALDWIN Jr.(Crew Chief No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid)

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Winston Cup Series.

"Oh yeah! The mind games with what goes on throughout the team is just as important as finding speed in the car. If Jimmy knows he's going to come in and have 13-second pit stops every day, he's going to be a lot more aggressive on the track and have more confidence when we make a call and give me an opportunity to make some different decisions because of it. Knowing how aggressive Jimmy is in the beginning of the run, depending on which race track we are, the mind is a powerful thing and it can overcome a lot."

"I thrive on being at the race track and working on the car and trying to go fast."

A Zoomster question from Debbie:
Can you tell us what part of your job as crew chief is most important?

"The main thing is the organization set up and everything working like a well-oiled machine and everybody from the top to the bottom understands what needs to get done so when the car shows up on Friday morning it's ready to go and all the proper things are in it. The next thing is the communication between the driver and crew chief, us believing in one another and us as a team keeping the driver pumped up. That's a major factor in having a race team be successful.

"If you wake up every morning not wanting to learn something you might as well quit this business. This business moves too fast for anyone to be hard-headed and think they know everything."

We've developed a course in NASCAR tech school now that the kids can follow and get some credit for. A couple of them are working at the Ultra shop now as we speak, learning the ropes inside and out. They definitely need to get to the Friday and Saturday night tracks, local Dodge Series racing track and get the ability to learn how to work on these cars inside and out, working on them at night, having a full-time job and going to the shop on a hobby basis and working on the cars at night and going to the races on weekends and learning about the cars.