FOR THE RECORD Q&A with Hall of Famer Kirk Shelmerdine

BY BEN WHITE

When Kirk Shelmerdine went to work for driver James Hylton in 1976, the teenager had no idea what he would be able to accomplish during his career in NASCAR Cup Series racing.

The Philadelphia native eventually became a four-time Cup Series championship crew chief with Richard Childress Racing and driver Dale Earnhardt. His cars collected 44 of Earnhardt’s 76 wins, 142 top-five finishes and 246 top-10 results. Shelmerdine led the team to titles in 1986, 1987, 1990 and 1991 and also spearheaded four consecutive Pit Crew championships.

Following his years as a crew chief, Shelmerdine pursued a driving career in ARCA and NASCAR Cup Series competition.

He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January where he was asked about his career – both past and present.

ANY STORIES STAND OUT ABOUT YOUR TIME WITH RCR AND DALE EARNHARDT?

There are quite a few and you have to divide them into particular categories as far as particular tracks, or a kind of race, or maybe a pit stop story, or a race story, or a driving down the road story. There are so many.

We won the (Cup Series) championship the first time in 1986. The last race was at Atlanta. That was always a good track for us. There were no planes or anything back then. We rode up and down the road in that old Wrangler (team sponsor) van. We got in it to go home. Everyone was still screaming and hollering. We had the side door open all the way back to North Carolina. People were beeping their horns at us. The thing was all painted up in loud (yellow and blue) colors.

WHAT WAS EARNHARDT LIKE – ON AND OFF THE TRACK?

Everyone thought he was haphazard and reckless – a bull in a china shop, a “get out of the way or he’s going to run over you” type. We sort of fanned the flames of some of that stuff to keep them at bay. He really wasn’t that kind of person … just at the track – “That’s my persona. I put the cape on and I’m Superman.”

He really was sensitive and understood the cars very well and the dynamics of how everything works and the math of it all. He had been racing so long before that with his own cars and built everything and did all the handmade stuff. He could talk about how something was bolted onto something and he had a picture of it because he had done that. It helps when you look at things from his point of view.

You have to say, “Ok, you’re Superman, but you have to have something to work with, too. We can’t just let you bear all the load of it, you know?” He’s going to drive way too far into the corner more than everyone thinks he is supposed to because that’s the easiest place to pass people. So why not help him do it instead of trying to talk him out of it. It made things a whole lot less frustrating for him I’m sure and gave him a lot more confidence to know everyone was behind him, as if to say, whatever you do, we’re going to help you.

(Laughter) If you backed into a van in parking lot, it was their fault for parking there.

WHAT’S ONE MEMORY THAT DEFINES DALE EARNHARDT?

We were at the old Richmond track. It was February 1986 and it had rained and everything was squishy and muddy. There was some kind of incident where someone spun off the track. Mud flew everywhere and covered up his windshield pretty badly.

He was leading the race and he came on the radio and said, “I can’t see anything. I have stuff all over my windshield.” We weren’t very far from the end of the race.

Then, he said, “Wait a minute. I’ll be right back.”

He’s on the backstretch and we didn’t see him. He comes around onto the frontstretch and there he is sitting on the driver’s side window opening outside the car. He had dropped the window net, taken his seat belts off, taken his shoe off and was using the top part of his shoe to make a hole in the mud on his windshield so he could see.

Then, he had to get back in there and button everything back up under caution, still at 50 mph or something like that. He had his right knee on the steering wheel and the rest of him was almost all the way out of the car. That was kind of cool. We didn’t help him at all on that one.

WHY THE MOVE FROM RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING AFTER SO MUCH SUCCESS?

When I left RCR in 1996, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I hung bodies for different teams and said, “Ok, what is the game plan?” Really, the only game plan was that I knew I needed to quit this because I was spent. I was just too worn out.

I had a 2-year-old son at the time. That sort of changes how you look at life and look at things. It’s hard to explain the progression. I was consulting but it just wasn’t interesting. I went back and forth with a couple of different teams. There were some fun days. They did really well in the Busch (Xfinity) Series that year.

I was back in the Cup Series the next year. I had a 20th-place finish (while driving) in the Daytona 500 (in 2006). Things went Ok. Then I stood and watched and they (teams) asked me things but it wasn’t the same thing. That kind of fizzled.

CURRENTLY, WHAT KEEPS YOU BUSY?

I’ve been out of the loop for about 10 years. It’s hard to find a niche that suits me. As successful as we were with Dale and the race team, we kind of won everything we could win. All you can do is go down at some point. After you’ve been driving, you’re out there on the track, standing in the pits isn’t the same as it used to be. Once you go one place you can’t go back. (Laughter) So I’m still trying to figure out what’s next.

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