Making time for mom (and dad, too)

MARTINSVILLE — Darrell Haskins spent Saturday night hanging out with his mom in Danville.

He thought it was cool.

His peers did, too.

The 43-year-old mechanic, a Tunstall High School graduate, is helping set up the pit box for two-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart’s No. 14 Old Spice Chevrolet in the infield at Martinsville Speedway this morning, before today’s running of the TUMS Fast Relief 500. The high-spirited Haskins travels just one day a week with the pit crew this year, wearing an ear-to-ear smile while popping in and out of cities across America on race day. His travel schedule was formerly far more grueling.

Adam Gravitt, a young shock specialist from nearby South Boston, toils in the garage, helping prepare Stewart’s car for the sixth race of the Chase for the Cup. At only 27, the Halifax County High School grad’s eyes exude the steely visage of a veteran. He’s not fazed by his surroundings, by the Sprint Cup cars, by the celebrity drivers, by the pressure of his job and the tens of thousands of fans who pack the grandstands. This is old hat for the young man, after all.

Gravitt is in his fifth season at NASCAR’s highest level, ever since he earned his mechanical engineering degree from Virginia Tech. He travels full-time with the fledgling Stewart-Haas Racing team, putting him on the road 38 weeks out of the year, away from family, away from friends, away from the ones he loves. It’s the price he pays for the career of his dreams.

“I probably don’t want to do it the rest of my life, but I do enjoy being on the road now while I’m young. I get to experience a lot of different places,” Gravitt said. “I had never hardly been further than Myrtle Beach, but I got out of college and got on this race team and the next thing you know I’m in Napa Valley in California tasting wine.”

His mother and father couldn’t be more proud. They waited for their boy, alongside his girlfriend, after qualifying Friday, using their HOT passes into the infield to set up shop between Stewart’s hauler and garage stall, taking in the rare opportunity to see their son in action close to home.

Gravitt, like Haskins, initially broke into the sport doing odd jobs as a teenager at tradition-rich short track South Boston Speedway. Gravitt sold gas and programs, did cleanup, worked security and even mounted tires, beginning while still an underclassman at Halifax.

“I just loved going to the races. My parents and my family, we’d all go when we were kids and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. As I got to be a teenager, all I wanted to do was be at the race track,” Gravitt said. “Pretty much anything they needed me to do, I was happy to do it just to be around the racetrack and start learning cars.”

Haskins got his start in auto racing after graduating from Tunstall by volunteering to help in the garage of legendary short-track driver Barry Beggarly, who operated a shop in nearby Pelham, N.C. When driver Scott Riggs broke into the Craftsman Truck Series in 1999, he invited Haskins to join his team.

“We formed a friendship racing,” Haskins said. “He knew what I did and it was pretty cool for him to call and see if I wanted to work for him. Getting paid for something you love to do — you’d do it for nothing, but it’s even better to get paid for it.”

Haskins worked on Ted Musgrave’s No. 1 Dodge for a few years and eventually made his way to the Nationwide Series, where he worked on the No. 33 car for Kevin Harvick. That’s where he met Stewart, who occasionally raced the No. 33.

Haskins joined Haas CNC Racing last year, when Riggs drove for the organization, and when Stewart bought into the team at the end of last season, replacing Riggs as a driver and forming Stewart-Haas Racing, the once-divorced Danville native remained with the organization through the personnel changes. This is the first season in a while that Haskins hasn’t traveled full-time.

“It was a big transition for me from going on the road three or four days. Just going that one day is different, but I enjoy it,” Haskins said. “You get to spend more time with the ones you love. The road crew is just hard. … It’s just a different life.”

Gravitt hooked on as an unpaid intern with Haas shortly after college, thanks in large part to persistence and good fortune. While still in school, he would drive from Blacksburg to Charlotte and just start handing out resumes, asking to speak with head engineers and crew chiefs and “anybody that I thought would be a good way to get my foot in the door.”

It was through this networking that Gravitt came in touch with crew chief Bootie Barker, who grew up on the other side of South Boston. Gravitt periodically remained in touch with Barker, and after graduating from Virginia Tech was all set to begin an unpaid internship with 600 Racing, a small outfit in Charlotte that builds Legends cars that race at area short tracks.

“I had a four-year engineering degree and I was just going to come down there and do it for nothing,” Gravitt said. “It was pretty much just a basic deal to get my feet wet.”

Gravitt rented an apartment in Charlotte, and while in the process of moving decided to call Barker, who learned that the youngster planned to intern for free. Barker, employed by Haas CNC Racing at the time, had an engineer who was leaving the team and offered Gravitt the opportunity to intern for them instead. Gravitt was eventually brought on as a full-time employee and has traveled with the team non-stop ever since.

“Being young, it’s nice, because I don’t mind it,” Gravitt said. “I’ve got a girlfriend, but I’m not married, I don’t have kids. I’m sure it gets extremely stressful when you do have kids and you’ve got a family back home. … I like being on the road. It’s not made for everybody.”

In the first season as Stewart-Haas Racing, the two local men have teamed with the rest of the crew to help Stewart record four victories, 15 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes, plus a win in the Sprint All-Star Race and a spot in the season-ending 12-car Chase for the Cup. The team has already experienced success at this venue, posting its first top-five at the spring Martinsville race.

Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman, also qualified for the Chase this season in the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet, and starts on the pole for today’s race.

“The same day that we got our first top-five here I think Ryan ended up eighth…” Stewart said. “I think we both left here with the feeling that we had two great race teams that were able to be competitive and be able to fight back and have good runs.”

A sizeable amount of the credit for Stewart-Haas Racing’s success in its inaugural season rests on the shoulders of the crew.

Haskins spends the bulk of his workweek at the team’s shop in Kannapolis, N.C., where he assembles and works on Stewart’s suspension and brakes. He’s always at the track on race day, however, where he goes down a checklist while helping ready the car and assists in the setup of the pit box. He runs fuel while a race is in progress, rushing off with the empty can and filling it back up. He’s also there as the backup gas man.

Gravitt, who travels full-time, is in charge of the shocks, the springs and anything that entails optimizing the suspension performance. He uses a seven-post shaker rig to test suspension components when at the garage and helps fine-tune the car when at the track. Prior to a race, he helps get the car nut and bolted, rolls it through a technical inspection and works hand in hand with the race engineers and crew chief. His responsibilities after a pit stop include handling the left rear tire and inspecting it for wear, temperature buildup and pressure. He enters those details into a database that ships real-time information directly to the crew chief during the race.

“They’re both really good guys,” said Stewart’s crew chief, Darian Grubb, who like Gravitt and Haskins considers Martinsville a sort of “hometown” track. Grubb hails from Floyd, about 45 miles northwest of Martinsville, and he understands the rigors of non-stop travel.

Grubb visited his mom and dad in Floyd earlier in the week and brought 21 guys from the team along for the ride. They all enjoyed a big dinner and had a blast riding four-wheelers in the mountains. The crew always makes it a point to participate in social events together throughout the season, be it riding go-karts or four wheelers or playing disc golf or putt-putt.

“That’s number one in this sport,” Grubb said about employing quality people and forming a team that shares great chemistry. “You have to have everybody pulling in one direction. We work so hard for so many weeks in a row. We spend all of our time away from our families and friends and we make a lot of sacrifices. We have to be able to get along and be each others’ family when we are away.”

Five races remain in the Chase before a champion is crowned. Stewart, the highest-ranked non-Hendrick Motorsports driver, is fourth entering today’s race at Martinsville, 155 points behind leader and three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. Newman is eighth.

Whatever happens this season, Stewart-Haas Racing’s inaugural campaign has already been a smashing success. It’s the only team with all of its cars in the Chase, a feat that’s exceeded even Stewart’s expectations. Stewart, like the rest of the team, would love nothing more than to win a championship. At the same time, even he admitted he’s ready for a break from the grind.

“I’m hoping to have a little bit of an off-season,” Stewart said, “and actually have a life after the next five weeks is over.”

Perhaps he’ll take some time to visit his mom.