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Success Starts Behind The Scenes

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By TONY FABRIZIO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 14, 2007

Updated: 11/13/2007 11:44 pm

If Jimmie Johnson holds on to defend his Nextel Cup championship Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he will share the recognition with crew chief Chad Knaus and team co-owners Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon.

But there will be a whole lot more people behind the scenes who will have contributed to the success.

One of them is Chris Anderson, a Brooksville native and 1989 Hillsborough High graduate who has won three championships as a member of Gordon's pit crew and one with Johnson.

Anderson, 37, is a parts manager for the 24/48 shop that houses the cars of Gordon and Johnson and was the jack man on Johnson's pit crew for most of this season, although he has given way during the Chase to younger Kenneth Purcell.

"You see Jimmie and Chad on TV, but what you should really see if you close your eyes is all the people that helped them get to that point," Anderson said.

NASCAR racing may have more people who work in the background in a championship effort than any other sport. Hendrick Motorsports has 560 employees, about 80 of whom work for the 24/48 shop or for one of the driver's crews.

Given that a 50-cent part or mistake in the pits can mean the difference between finishing first or 40th, every position in the shop or on the crew that involves contact with the race car is critical. That's especially true going into Sunday's Ford 400, since Johnson is assured the championship if he finishes as least 18th.

Hendrick Motorsports, like all the other top NASCAR teams, builds its own cars and engines. The process requires engineers, fabricators, welders, mechanics and specialists of all kinds.

"There's so much involved," Anderson said. "You've got people who paint the cars, put sticks on, order everything that goes on the cars from the rivets on up. You've got fabricators who mold the windshields to the right aerodynamic to fit the templates.

"You hear the announcer say, 'Hey, that's the same car Jimmie Johnson won with at Atlanta and Texas.' Well, it's the same car, but it came back to the shop, got stripped by the postrace department, cleaned up and sent to the fab shop to have all the nicks and bumps and bends fixed."

Anderson was an all-state football player at Hillsborough High, starting both ways, and a three-year starter on the offensive line at Appalachian State. After graduation, he followed in the footsteps of his mother, Nancy, a former principal at Gaither High, and father, Bob, a former assistant principal at Greco Middle School and taught school briefly in Tampa and Charlotte, N.C.

A strange twist of fate led him to an occupation in racing. Back when he was a team owner, NASCAR legend Junior Johnson occasionally invited the Appalachian State football team to his North Carolina race shop and farm for dinner or to a race at now-defunct North Wilkesboro Speedway. On one particular occasion at North Wilkesboro, Anderson found himself stranded.

"One of my friends took his Mustang around the track and basically was escorted out," Anderson said. "That was my ride home."

Anderson got a ride back to Boone, N.C., from one of Johnson's crewmen, and that's when he learned that athletes could make a living working on NASCAR pit crews.

He later found his way to Hendrick Motorsports and earned a spot on Gordon's Rainbow Warriors, NASCAR's first highly trained pit crew.

He was the "catch-can man" on Gordon's 1997 and '98 championship teams. After Robert Yates hired away most of the Warriors after the '99 season for Dale Jarrett, he moved up to the jack man job and handled that role on Gordon's 2001 championship team. When the No. 48 team was launched with Johnson in 2002, he was the jack man.

"I came in with Jeff after he was established, but I've been with Jimmie since the start," Anderson said. "It's been cool to see how he's grown."

Anderson, who is married and lives in Concord, N.C., gets a championship ring when the team wins one. He earned his fourth last year and, though he is currently a backup on the pit crew, he is on the verge of collecting a fifth.

"They're in a safe," he said. "Every once in a while, I'll pull them out, and I might wear one out to dinner or something. But I don't wear them much. I always figure if I start putting them on, that means I don't want any more. And I still want to collect more."

Reporter Tony Fabrizio can be reached at (813) 259-7994 or afabrizio@tampatrib.com.

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