As a Spotter for over 30 years

Spotter22

Spotter22

Team Owner
Joined
Aug 17, 2017
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Are there any questions involving our job that my friends or foes here would like me to answer? I think we need to get back to the basics and talk racing so Im open to any questions you guys and girls might have. Fire away.
 
Is it just me, or do the drivers now seem more calm than say in the eighties and nineties? I remember listening to Harry Gant at Bristol in 1992. Man, he was yelling and raising all kinds of cane. Seems they're more laid back now.
 
Obviously it's not easy to spot anywhere but what type of tracks are the least difficult to spot?
 
mack said:
Is it just me, or do the drivers now seem more calm than say in the eighties and nineties? I remember listening to Harry Gant at Bristol in 1992. Man, he was yelling and raising all kinds of cane. Seems they're more laid back now.
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It just depends on who you are working with, I'd say 90% of the drivers I worked with would go bat **** crazy at certain times, mostly because of how the car was handling, the other 10% they were pissed off at another driver. I can tell you this, one of the calmest drivers I ever worked with was Jimmy Spencer, he rarely got upset. Mr Exictement was a calm guy in the car, outside... not so much. :)
 
kkfan91 said:
Obviously it's not easy to spot anywhere but what type of tracks are the least difficult to spot?
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Road Courses. The lead spotter would get the start finish line area and we would have 3 or 4 others covering the rest of the track except the Glen in the bus stop. Much of it was out of our hands. The drivers had to clear themselves in the esses.
 
DIDIT said:
What was the worst race condition you ever spotted?
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COLD AND WIND! Being so high up its pretty brutal sometimes. Bristol and Daytona come to mind. Daytona in February can be awful. On the other hand, Darlington is so humid and muggy in August early September, its so hard to concentrate and focus.
 
2 Sweet said:
Either one....up to you! Maybe your top 5 from all series?
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My Brother who ran dirt in the early 80's
Charles Powell III (CP3) we ran Myrtle Beach Speedway and won over 70 races and 4 Championships in Super Lates and late models from 1994-1998. We took 1997 off from Myrtle Beach to run the Goodys Dash Series, won 1 race and rookie of the year. To me, the best driver I ever worked with. If he had the money he would have been a super star.
 
If you want to get an idea what its like to be a spotter, take your TV outside and mark a spot in front of it where you have about a 2 squarefoot space and dont move from there for 3-4 hours, it might be cold, it might be hot but you get no relief until the race is over. You can get a swig of water or a bite of a nutrition bar, if you are lucky.
 
What was your favorite Cup track to spot at? Best driver from a team besides yours you ever seen in Cup racing?
 
What improvements in gear since you started?

Are you the main deal-making point of contact when talking/coordinating between other teams during a race?
 
Thank you for this opportunity! My question(s)...How do you develop the communication with the driver and crew chief? Do you develop a personal relationship to establish trust? How much time do you spend with them to get to the level you need where everybody is on the same page?
 
Good questions, Revman.
My question to Spotter22 --- have you ever lost your temper over the radio at a driver?
 
Snappy D said:
What was your favorite Cup track to spot at? Best driver from a team besides yours you ever seen in Cup racing?
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Bristol is my favorite because its one of the hardest. Youre watching your car while having to watch about a half a track in front of him scanning for trouble then manage to scan back and find your car, its not hard to lose them for a second. Best driver, In Yesterdays NASCAR, Bobby Allison and David Pearson. In todays NASCAR Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch. All tremendous talents.
 
Ventisca said:
What improvements in gear since you started?

Are you the main deal-making point of contact when talking/coordinating between other teams during a race?
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Gear as in radios? When I first started we had a Motorola and a head set that had the push to talk on the headset. Imagine holding your arm up all day like that. Radios today have nice comfortable noise cancelling headsets and hand held push to talk. We used to have 2 to 3 different radios, 1 for NASCAR which is mandatory and 2 for the team. Now the radios can carry all of that in one. A lot of the deal making is done in the pits because sometimes we are too spread out on the roof and unless under a caution you can walk arounf trying to talk with other spotters.
 
Revman said:
Thank you for this opportunity! My question(s)...How do you develop the communication with the driver and crew chief? Do you develop a personal relationship to establish trust? How much time do you spend with them to get to the level you need where everybody is on the same page?
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Drivers have thier own prefernces, some want to you to talk a lot, some want as little chatter as possible. Most of the ones I spotted for were somewhere in the middle, on top of doing the regular stuff like clearing and watching for trouble, I would give lap times and intervals. As far as trust, when you get to the Cup level you already have a pretty good reputation but even so it takes a couple of races to learn what they want and for them to completely buy in.
 
How often does Nascar comment to the teams during a race, all teams at the same time or individually and what do they say?? always wondered about that.....
 
How has it affected communication with the rise of scanners at track and people listening at home on internet? Do you often switch to the unlisted second (or third) channel to talk strategy, or is it now in code?

Also, heck, I’ll ask... what do you do about “going?” Wear a “stadium pal” tube and bag? Hold it? Just wear dark pants? ;)

Thanks for giving us a look behind the wizard’s curtain here.
 
DRS3 said:
How often does Nascar comment to the teams during a race, all teams at the same time or individually and what do they say?? always wondered about that.....
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They can communicate to all at one time and Individually, mainly they are communicating to the spotter and we are responsible to pass on the information. Communications to all would be something like say before the race, they give us a countdown to start time, or under caution let us know if its a quickie yellow. Individually it can be anything from a pit road penalty to having me calm my driver down or get him back in position under yellow.
 
Dr_B_UNC said:
How has it affected communication with the rise of scanners at track and people listening at home on internet? Do you often switch to the unlisted second (or third) channel to talk strategy, or is it now in code?

Also, heck, I’ll ask... what do you do about “going?” Wear a “stadium pal” tube and bag? Hold it? Just wear dark pants? ;)

Thanks for giving us a look behind the wizard’s curtain here.
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Back a few years ago we would have trouble with bleed over from other teams or track personel and had a back up frequency we could switch too. The scanners at the track dont really have an effect on us because they are just listening in and not trying to broadcast.

In my entire career I never had an episode where I had to go to the bathroom, you are so focused you really dont have time to think about it. The closest thing would be when we had a weather delay and were still running around the track under caution and all of a sudden it hit me but luckily we got the red flag a few laps later and several of us made a bee line to the restroom.
 
Spotter22 said:
Back a few years ago we would have trouble with bleed over from other teams or track personel
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When I was attending regularly and using my scanner, I would sometimes get the concessions supply people bleeding over ---- talking about this stand needing more buns, or running out of soda. LOL
 
Was you spotting for Bobby Allison when he took down the catch fence at Talladega?
 
What cup drivers and cup teams have u worked for? Being a spotter has gotta be one of the hardest jobs in racing
 
Spotter22 said:
Bristol is my favorite because its one of the hardest. Youre watching your car while having to watch about a half a track in front of him scanning for trouble then manage to scan back and find your car, its not hard to lose them for a second. Best driver, In Yesterdays NASCAR, Bobby Allison and David Pearson. In todays NASCAR Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch. All tremendous talents.
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This is awesome, thanks for responding. Got one more for ya.... did you ever spot for a driver that raced Dale Earnhardt Sr and if so what was Earnhardt like?
 
@Spotter22 thanks. I don’t think I phrased that well. What I meant is how does knowing there are thousands and thousands of people, much less other teams, listening affect what you say or don’t say? Are spotters, drivers, and crew chiefs “trained” by teams as to what is permissible? How do you discuss a strategy call while everyone is listening?
Unless there’s physical abuse caught on camera or something, other sports participants and coaches don’t really have to worry about what’s said in heat of competition. NASCAR media even makes a feature of it every week.
 
I spotted one time in all my years of being around the track. It was for a buddy in a Late Model event. 100 laps. I remember two things from it. I was exhausted after. It takes so much focus that you don't really understand until you have tried to do it. We were on a half mile and like you stated above you are trying to watch your car, as well as everything else going on around the track. The other thing I remember was a moment where we were two wide entering three and a car trying to run through the field made a desperate attempt at going three wide where you normally wouldn't. It caught me completely off guard and all I said when I queued the radio was "Oh Sh*t!!!! 3 wide middle" The last part came out late. Luckily my buddy was able to navigate it and we were able to have a laugh after.

My question is what is the biggest mistake you have made as a spotter, what was the end result and how did it go over?
 
Spotter Pod Of Tomorrow

One-person, egg-shaped, all-weather ****pit pods on rotational mounts lined up on the roof with integrated comm gear, Heads Up Display, auto-track, multi-digital displays, cupholder, zoom cameras integrated into gunner display/monitor, climate controlled, lightning proof, sleep sensor shock probe, with LED external lights to signal the stage/race winner.

All integrated with the multi-level Crew Chief Pit Box.
 
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