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Tag: Eddie D’Hondt

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Federated Auto Parts 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Federated Auto Parts 400

    [media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”221″][/media-credit]In a race full of twists and turns, including rain delays and wild card drama, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 55th annual running of the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond.

    Surprising:  It was surprising what a dramatically different reaction this driver had to a second place run this weekend as compared to the last.

    Jeff Gordon, piloting the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, went from kicking himself for his second place finish behind Denny Hamlin at Atlanta to being thrilled with his Richmond runner up run, especially since it clinched his wild card spot in the championship Chase.

    Gordon, Alan Gustafson (crew chief), Eddie D’Hondt (spotter) and the entire 24 team demonstrated the ‘never give up’ mantra, taking a car that was admittedly ‘junk’ at the beginning of the race, cutting the chain on the rear sway bar on a pit stop, and getting the car back up through the field after the rain delays to finish in the second spot and secure the final wild card berth in the Chase.

    “We went from last week to being the most disappointed I’ve ever been to finish second to the most excited I’ve ever been to finish second,” Gordon said. “Wow, what a race for us.”

    “I still can’t believe we actually did it.”

    Not Surprising:  As elated as Jeff Gordon was, the driver who fell out of the Chase was equally deflated, if not more so. Errors on pit road, including a lug nut problem that created a lengthy pit stop, cost Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota, the chance to compete for the Cup this year.

    Busch, who finished the race in the 16th position, fell back to the 13th spot in the point standings, losing his wild card berth to Gordon.

    “We missed it,” Busch said simply, after gathering his composure enough to make a brief statement. “That’s it, plain and simple.”

    “There’s no right way to handle this situation.”

    Surprising:  While many were surprised that all four of the Hendrick Motorsports cars scored spots in the Chase, the bigger surprise was that Michael Waltrip Racing achieved a similar feat, getting both of their race cars into Cup contention.

    In fact, one of their drivers, Clint Bowyer, in the No. 15 5-Hour EnergyToyota, powered through an incident with Juan Pablo Montoya and almost running out of gas, to make his way right toVictory Lane.

    “”To win this last race before this Chase is unbelievable,” Bowyer said. “We had a lot of adversity we had to bounce through.”

    “This is a good way to get things bounced back headed into this Chase,” Bowyer continued. “You never give up in this sport.”

    Bowyer’s Michael Waltrip Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr., also never gave up and achieved his goal of a Chase spot.

    “Man, I feel good,” the driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts MWR Toyota said. “The way our cars are running and as fast as we’ve been the last six or seven weeks, we’re dangerous.”

    “Looking forward to going out and having some fun and hopefully we’ll be in the hunt.”

    Not Surprising:  Although thrilled that the team that bears his name raced two cars into the championship hunt, co-owner Michael Waltrip had another driver and good friend on his mind as he reflected on just how far his team had come over the years.

    “I’m so proud of what we’ve put together,” Waltrip said. “I’m obviously really happy with having two cars in the Chase.”

    “But my inspiration for having a team from the beginning was Dale Earnhardt,” Waltrip continued. “I always wanted to have a team like Dale had.”

    “So anytime something goes good, I always think about what all he meant to me.”

    Surprising:  Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota had a surprising new attitude about not only his race, in which he led 202 laps but finished 18th, but also his bid for the championship.

    “For the most part, I think I’ll just be a lot more relaxed this time around,” Hamlin said. “What do we have to lose?”

    “We’ve never won a championship,” Hamlin continued. “We’re going out there to try to win our first.”

    “I’m going to race week-to-week and just not think about a championship until I get to Homestead.”

    Not Surprising:   While Richmond was good to Stewart Haas Racing, it was not quite good enough to get one of their teams into the Chase.

    Tony Stewart, piloting the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, finished 4th at Richmond and became the 3rd seed in the Chase standings.

    “Really proud of Steve Addington (crew chief) and all of our guys at Stewart-Haas Racing,” Smoke said. “Just proud of the effort tonight.”

    Teammate Ryan Newman, however, did not fare so well. Although he brought his No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet home in the 8th position, he missed out on a spot in the Chase.

    “It’s disappointing,” Newman said. “I don’t really know what to say other than that.”

    “We gave it all we had and we didn’t get the win we needed to make the Chase.”

    Surprising:  One driver who has been admittedly struggling all year had a surprisingly good Richmond run. Jeff Burton, driving the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, finished top-10, in the sixth position to be exact.

    “I’ve been saying week after week how strong this team is getting and we proved that tonight with a hard-fought top-10 finish,”Burton said. “I am happy and proud of everyone.”

    Not Surprising:  Although Kasey Kahne focused mightily on his No. 5 race car all night and into the morning, he was, not surprisingly, focused on another number, four, after the race.

    “Four Hendrick cars in the Chase,” Kahne said. “Four Chevrolets too.”

    Kahne finished 12th at Richmond, but more importantly secured the 11th seed in the Chase, making him one of those four Hendrick Motorsports drivers in the hunt for the championship.

    Surprising:  Ford had a surprisingly divided run to the Chase, with two Fords in and two Fords out. Matt Kenseth, in the No. 17 Best Buy Ford, finished fifth and will be seeded 8th in the Chase. Greg Biffle, in the No. 16 3M Ford, finished 9th and is seeded fifth in the Chase.

    The two Fords out, however, were Carl Edwards in the No. 99 Kellogg’s Ford and Marcos Ambrose in the No. 8 MAC Tools Ford. Edwards finished the Richmond race in the 17th position and Ambrose finished top-15.

    “I’m obviously disappointed,” Edwards said. “We just let too many points get away for a bunch of different reasons.”

    “We will just go try to build the best team we can for next year and try to make sure a Ford wins this championship.”

    “I just tried my hardest,” Ambrose said. “It wasn’t our night.”

    “Obviously we wanted the win, but it wasn’t meant to be.” 

    Not Surprising:  One driver was not only happy to be in the conversation, but has just been plain having fun as well. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished 14th in the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew/National Guard Chevrolet and picked up the 7th place in the Chase.

    “We ran good,” Junior said. “I’m proud of the effort the whole company put forward this year.”

    “I’ve had an awesome time,” Junior continued. “It’s been so much fun.”

    “We are in the conversation and we’re going to work hard to still be in that conversation at Homestead.”

  • Looking out for a champion: Eddie D’Hondt

    Looking out for a champion: Eddie D’Hondt

    [media-credit name=”Photo Credit: Gary Buchanan” align=”alignright” width=”168″][/media-credit]How did you become a spotter?
    “Well, I used to drive late models and modified’s in the NASCAR touring division. I first drove to Charlotte in 1996. I became a General Manager since I have a good business background and we needed a spotter one day for the Cup race with Bill Elliott when I was a general manager there so I just started doing it and I’ve been doing it ever since 12-13 years ago.”

    Entering adulthood, was your plan originally to work in auto racing or did you have another plan for your future?
    “Everything just kind of fell into place. I went to high school and college at C.W. Post on a Baseball and academic scholarship and I went there and started commercial window business in Manhattan where we made and sold commercial window systems and I just raced in the area. I did that for about 15-16 years. But, I raced all over the East Coast while I did that. A bunch of us moved down to Charlotte in 1996, Tommy Baldwin, myself, and Steve Park, and it just kind of all evolved.”

    How did you manage your time between your business and your racing?
    “We had very little sleep. I had to wake up at four o’clock every day to travel to my job and then come home and be with my family for a little while and then go to the shop and work on my race cars and go to be at 12:30-one o’clock every night.”

    What has been the biggest challenge that you’ve faced in your career?
    “I think the change in it all. After about four years I went to work for Bill Elliott as his General Manager. I wanted to work with him for the rest of my life. His career was winding down and Ray Evernham came up to me and asked me if I can convince Bill to drive for him as he was going to start up a Dodge team and he wanted me to come and be his General Manager. Eventually he bought out Bill Elliott Racing. After that I became the GM at Evernham Motorsports. But, the biggest challenge has been changing jobs because the platform of the sport changes. I worked with Robert Yates for almost four years and became like a second son to him and the challenge itself has been to pick up teams from the ground and the business changes in one way or another. The change of it is a little bit devastating but you have to try to make the best of it in the long term.”

    Can you elaborate on your relationship with Robert Yates, Tommy Baldwin, and Ray Evernham?
    “Tommy and I have been best friends for 37 years, our friendship goes back when he was seven years old and I stuffed him in a tire and rolled him down a hill in the mud and we became best friend’s ever since. His dad and I were extremely close. As far as Ray goes, I knew him from back home and when I came down here and I was always happy for him and his accomplishments. Then I started working for him for a while. Robert and getting to know him and getting to run his company and turning it around was a pretty big change from when I got there. I can say that I became a second son to him and after three and a half years his career wound down and sold the team. I spent so much time with these people, it’s pretty easy to build a relationship with them. You spend more time with the people you work with than your own family.”

    What years did you work with RYR and what did you do to turn around the team?
    “I started in the last two races in 2003 and I left mid-season 2006. When I left, there was trouble financially. When I got there, they had two top ten’s between Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler and then the next year they had two wins, 23 tops ten’s and when I took over it totally changed a lot of the ways things were going on. They just needed someone to come in and give a fresh look at it. We won Talladega in 2005 and it was also the last time Dale Jarrett won a race. It was pretty good for a couple of years and they ran well.”

    How do you take that experience you have with managing teams and taking it to the teams when your spotting?
    “There aren’t that many parts of the managerial side that play a role while spotting, it’s more of my time as a driver. I make it seem like the driver’s I’m working with are in my shoes.”

    Previously, you worked with Kyle Busch, this season you’re working with Jeff Gordon and Justin Allgair. What differences do you see between the two drivers compared to other drivers you worked with in the past?
    “Jeff is a Cup Series professional and he’s extremely professional in his approach as he never ever gets angry, he doesn’t call out anyone on our team and when something goes wrong he’s the positive guy that takes care of everything and he’s extremely talented. Kyle is also talented, but he’s more exaggerated in his feelings and emotions. All of the stuff that is happening to him is happening for the first time when Jeff has been through all of it, winning four championships and having a lot of experience. With Kyle, he has all of the talent in the world to win multiple championships, but they are totally different personalities. They’re both very good but on two parts of the spectrum.”

    What are the differences which you have witnessed going from Joe Gibbs Racing to Hendrick Motorsports?
    “I think that they’re very similar in how they approach things on the performance side. My son works at JGR and I’m very happy for him. At HMS, it’s very polished, they have more years than JGR, JGR started up after HMS so you can see that the experience things that HMS has with the championships between Jimmie Johnson and Jeff in house as opposed to just three with JGR with Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte. It’s just the maturity of the organization. Gibbs will get to winning championships in years to come, but I think Hendrick stand on its own platform.”

    What does your OLDEST son do with JGR?
    “He is a mechanic for the No. 18 Nationwide team.”

    Besides being a spotter, what additional roles do you have with the team?
    “None, that is all I do with the No. 24 team. I also spot for Miguel Paludo and Justin Allgair. I do contract work for drivers and teams, but that’s all I do.”

    When not spotting or writing up contracts, what do you usually do?
    “Well I have two dogs that I look after and take care of in my house. I’ve been doing a lot of laundry these days because we’re in mid-season form and get home at four o’clock in the morning on Saturday night.”

    Does the speed of the sport, going week-to-week ever get to you?
    “Yeah it does, but, after all these years, I’ve gotten a pretty good basis of it without overwhelming me. I can see that happening to some young kids that drive. But, I started all of this in 1981 and have been through it for a quite amount of years. The schedule isn’t foreign to me. It used to be a lot harder with all of the testing where we spent the weekend at the racetrack and then go to another track for three days to test.”

    How much longer do you plan on spotting?
    “I don’t really know. I don’t really have a plan. I’ll probably keep going as long as I can do it. I enjoy working for the best company in the business and the best driver in the business. But, I don’t really have a plan.”

    Once you do retire, what will you do with all the free time every weekend?
    “I don’t know (chuckles). That’s a good question, but I’m not sure yet. Maybe I’ll consult for people. It’s just in my blood and it’s really hard to walk away from it.”

    With your managerial background, what is the possibility of you owning a team in the future?
    “I owned two Nationwide teams with Tommy Baldwin and myself and then I had my own Nationwide team and ARCA team with Randy Humphrey. I might get back to it one day, but it would be when the economy turns around a little bit better and when I can get people to be behind me to keep it financially stable. There was a couple of times around when Tommy and I built teams that were very strong, but we couldn’t find the funding.”

    The Nationwide team you owned a few years ago in 2008 or 2009 right?
    “That sounds roughly correct. The last Nationwide team I owned, Kyle drove for us at Watkins Glen and finished second. But I also owned the start and park teams with Randy Humphrey a few years ago. We were trying to build a full-time Nationwide team but we could never get the money to do it. But, the Nationwide team that Tommy and I had was sponsored by Unilever and is still around today.”

  • Eddie D’Hondt, Jeff Gordon’s Spotter, Sees a Team on the Verge

    [media-credit id=62 align=”alignright” width=”168″][/media-credit]While Eddie D’Hondt has done just about everything in his career, from racing modifieds in the Northeast to spotting for four-time champion Jeff Gordon, he is absolutely sure of one thing.

    D’Hondt is firmly convinced that the No. 24 team is on the verge of taking the checkered flag and, once that occurs, that there will be other wins to follow.

    “We’ve had some awful good races and we’re so close and on the verge of busting out,” D’Hondt said. “Working with Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and getting to know Jeff (Gordon) more and more has been very rewarding.”

    “Once we finally have our day, it will all come together.”

    D’Hondt brings years of racing experience to the spotter’s stand for team 24. He has worked for drivers the likes of Tony Stewart, Kenny Wallace and Bill Elliott, as well as owning his own Nationwide team with Tommy Baldwin and working for Yates Racing.

    “Since I left Yates, I’ve been pretty much spotting for teams,” D’Hondt said. “I’ve worked for Kyle Busch the last year and a half and now Jeff Gordon.”

    “So, that’s my journey.”

    Because of his diversified background, on and off the track, D’Hondt feels that he brings multiple characteristics to the spotter’s stand. But he credits his time behind the wheel as the key to effective spotting from the sky.

    “I think having been a driver helps me understand a little bit of the driver’s aspect of it and understanding the cars,” D’Hondt said. “I stay on top of that as best I can.”

    “A lot of spotters were drivers at one point so it helps.”

    D’Hondt also acknowledges that his spotting style varies, depending both on the type of track and on the type of driver.

    “It may vary for sure,” D’Hondt said. “At a speedway race, the driver and spotter talk a lot more.”

    “Here at New Hampshire, it’s more the crew chief than me talking,” D’Hondt continued. “I also spot for Justin Allgaier in the Nationwide Series and Miguel Paludo in the Truck Series, so whatever feedback, like tire wear or other trends, I’ll bring it to their attention.”

    In his career, D’Hondt has seen many changes in the role of the spotter. And that evolution has kept him constantly busy on the stand, with breaks in the action being few and far between.

    “The evolution of the spotter has changed over the last few years,” D’Hondt said. “It used to be when a caution came out, you could take a drink or relax a little bit.”

    “Now, there’s a lot more action,” D’Hondt continued. “We’re looking for cars coming around so we don’t hit them or looking for problems in the pit stalls. Pit road is tight and cars are coming at the last second.”

    Because of all this action, D’Hondt advises preparation for each and every race is key. And once the race starts, focus is all important, especially with juggling multiple radios as well as seeing the activities on track.

    “Two hours before a race, I’ll go up and start getting into my mental mode,” D’Hondt said. “Once the race starts, you could blow a bomb up next to me and I would never notice.”

    “I have five radios on, so I’m listening to a tremendous amount of things,” D’Hondt continued. “I listen to the race broadcast, NASCAR, myself, and I have a digital radio when the crew chief talks to me.”

    “So, it’s pretty dizzying,” D’Hondt said. “But that’s all just part of me being able to give information when it’s applicable or warranted.”

    Of course, because spotters are human too, there are other preparations that have to occur before they came atop the stand.

    “There’s a lot of goofy stuff we have to do to prepare for a race, like make sure we got to the bathroom before it starts,” D’Hondt said. “Like at the Charlotte 600, you’ve better have gone because there’s no time once you’re up there.”

    “I generally won’t drink anything two hours before a race,” D’Hondt continued “Once the race starts, I’ll take a drink every once in awhile.”

    “I also chew gum to keep my mouth going,” D’Hondt said. “The only time we’ll eat anything is in between practices because that’s a decent enough break.”

    One of the more recent challenges that spotters like D’Hondt have had to face is the ever changing paint schemes on their drivers’ cars. This played special havoc for D’Hondt last weekend at Daytona when driver Jeff Gordon was in the black Pepsi Max race car.

    “We had a black car at a dark race track last Saturday and when the wrecks started happening and there’s smoke, it’s really hard,” D’Hondt said. “You just have to feel your way through it.”

    “It’s almost a sixth sense.”

    “I come early and walk around the garages to make sure I know what the sponsors are and whose car number is whose because a lot of times, Jeff will ask,” D’Hondt continued. “So that’s part of my job.”

    While many consider the role of spotter as glamorous and exciting, D’Hondt affirms the most serious aspect of the job.

    “It’s got its glamorous side to it,” D’Hondt said. “But at times, it can be pretty intense.”

    “It’s our job to keep the drivers safe first and foremost.”

    While safety is supreme, spotters also play important roles as information givers, as well as cheerleaders and encouragers. And of course, that balance depends greatly on the driver, his tenure in the sport and his own expertise behind the wheel.

    “Sometimes I feel like cheerleading might be a good thing, but there are other times when you just have to let them concentrate and do their jobs,” D’Hondt said. “So, there’s a little bit of a fine line there.”

    “I think it depends on the driver,” D’Hondt said. “With Jeff, as a four-time champion, I don’t have to tell him much.”

    “With a second year driver in the Truck Series, he still has a lot to learn,” D’Hondt continued. “I can say, in the right moment, a lot to help him.”

    Of all the drivers he has worked with, D’Hondt expresses highest admiration for his current driver and four-time champion.

    “Jeff has been there, done that and he knows,” D’Hondt said. “So, I talk a whole lot less when it comes to Jeff.”

    “I’ve worked with a lot of drivers with tenure in our sport, but Jeff Gordon to me is the consummate professional,” D’Hondt continued. “He amazes me how he never gets rattled, never takes his anger out on his guys and is just very professional.”

    “I like that and I like to carry myself the same way.”

    With D’Hondt atop the spotters’ stand and Jeff Gordon behind the wheel, this spotter knows it is just a matter of time until he, his team and driver finally reach Victory Lane. And with one win will no doubt come others as well.

    “We’ve had a pretty rough year, not because we haven’t had fast cars or cars capable of winning,” D’Hondt said. “I feel like once we win our first race, it won’t be our last.”

    “I feel like now, we’re in a pretty good rhythm,” D’Hondt continued. “And having won in the past, I know I will never lose sight of what winning will mean.”