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GURSS: NASCAR Travel
Written by: Jade Gurss   
03/04/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
Faster. Louder. The weekly column on SPEEDtv.com by Jade Gurss. (Harold Hinson Photo) ยป More Photos

The travel arrangements of NASCAR teams have been in the news the past few weeks, first with the engine trouble experienced on a Michael Waltrip Racing plane (causing a safe but unexpected landing in Las Vegas instead of Ontario, CA) and several Cup teams postponing their return home from the Las Vegas race due to a snow storm in North Carolina. With the current economic times, some might think it’s extravagant for teams and drivers to own their own planes and jets to transport crews to and fro, but these flying armadas are more necessity than extravagance.

My first encounter with team travel was with one of Dale Earnhardt’s pilots with the nickname “Lucky” -- a moniker received as a by-product from a somewhat hazy anecdote involving a crash-landing in a Mexican jungle. Nicknames aside, the team charter or private plane is a vast improvement over the considerable hassle of commercial air travel.

Consider the travel logistics for a multi-car Cup team, moving dozens of team members from North Carolina to events all across the country. The ability to control the departure time to the race allows the crews to work at the shop until the latest possible moment without worrying about the flight plans of commercial airlines. More importantly, the teams depart each race within several hours of the checkered flag, eliminating an entire crew waiting an extra day to fly home to their families. Yes, sometimes the chartered flights arrive late, late night from the west coast or after night races, but the cumulative number of extra nights at home and ultimately more-rested and happier personnel helps lessen the burnout of 38 races each season.

Smaller teams (and most Nationwide and Truck Series teams) that cannot afford owning or leasing their own plane(s) often pool their resources to charter planes, saving money and adding convenience at the same time.

Most of the Cup over-the-wall pit crews fly in only for race day, versus the traveling crew who usually arrive each Thursday prior to a Sunday afternoon race. Again, it means less hotel, per-diem and rental car expenses for the teams, and more time at home for the pit crew.

“Nights in your own bed” was actually the deciding factor for one driver
to buy his own multi-million-dollar jet. He could afford it, but was reluctant to spend the money until an analysis was done to determine how many more nights he would spend at home over the course of a race season, including a large number of sponsor and personal appearances. The number of additional nights per year in his own bed was big enough to make him comfortable with the sizeable purchase. (Of course, the tax write-off is nice, and most drivers charge the sponsors for their jet expenses for each appearance…)

Where extravagance does occasionally come into play is the mad-dash from the track to the airport after each race. This rapid departure from the track is often as frantic and heated as the competition on the track. If the airport is not immediately adjacent to the track (like Atlanta this weekend, Talladega or Daytona), most Cup drivers, team owners and key personnel take helicopters from the track to the airport to avoid the traffic hassles of 100,000+ fans at nearly each stop.

Occasionally a terrible tragedy strikes, such as the Hendrick plane crash several years ago, but on an overall basis, the danger-per-mile is much lower with air travel than would be for the teams to travel via the highways. And despite what must be an immense expense of owning multiple planes, the benefits are worth it. And, a word to fans exiting a track near you, watch out for drivers racing to the nearest helipad or airport!

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

Jade Gurss is the owner of fingerprint, inc., a sports publicity company. He has written two New York Times Best Sellers, including what is believed to be the biggest-selling motorsports book in American publishing history (Driver #8 with Dale Earnhardt Jr.). His two decades of publicity and marketing experience involves nearly every category of motorsports, including nine innovative seasons as NASCAR publicist for the Budweiser brand and Earnhardt Jr. His blog can be seen at: http://fingerprint.typepad.com
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