September 9, 2007
By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson

When NASCAR teams go from race to race, they not only have to get the drivers there, but the cars, the equipment, and the team members. It isn’t an easy task, and one that is overlooked by a lot of fans who watch races either on TV or in person.

While getting a driver and a team from place to place is a short excursion by plane, getting the cars to the track is another story. Every week, haulers bearing the cars and supplies needed for each team to race criss-cross the country, arriving before the driver and teams and getting everything set up so the folks working the race will have everything they might need over the course of the weekend.

Bill “Stump” Lewis is the hauler driver for the #2 Miller Light Team with Penske Racing. He has been driving semis since he was old enough to have a license, which he admits was a very long time ago.

Photo Kim Roberson

“I came (into NASCAR driving) in ’95, I worked with Active Motorsports, then went to Jasper Motorsports, then stayed there 'till they merged with Penske a few years ago,” Stump explained Friday afternoon as he was getting dinner ready for the team behind the #2 hauler. “I worked for the Kodak team, then we had the reorganization at the shop and they closed the Kodak team down and they told me I was gonna be driving for the #2 team.”

Stump likes driving for a NASCAR team, but really likes the fact that his wife is his co-driver.

The life of a hauler driver is good in some ways compared to a normal long-haul driver, and bad in others.

“You don’t put in as many miles as they do. I had my own truck before, and if you weren’t doing 150-170 thousand (miles) a year, but in these we only do about 60-thousand (miles) a year. You run to the shop, there two days, three days, so you aren’t on the road every day like a regular long haul driver.”

That isn’t to say life working as a NASCAR hauler driver can’t mean long days and lots of time away from home.

“The last four races, we have been home about one night a week”.

One of the most interesting things from a bystanders point of view is watching the haulers line up at tracks week after week, parking less than three feet apart, sometimes in very confined spaces. Thursday night as the sun was setting, the haulers pulled into Richmond International Raceway. They come in according to the series points order, with the reigning champion’s hauler coming in first. Thursday, the #48, #24, #20, and #11 haulers pulled in and circled off to one side, and then the next set of haulers came in and began lining up along the fence. It took 90 minutes to get all of the haulers lined up in order, averaging just over 2 minutes per hauler to park.

When asked about how difficult it is to park the haulers in such neat rows so close to each other, Stump says “You get used to it….but it’s a lot of money you are dealing with and they don’t like you scratching them up, but once you do it for a while, you get used to it.”

One of the jobs that are often left up to the hauler driver is cooking for the team. Stumpy says he leaves that to his wife. However in most cases, it is the driver himself that is in charge….and that isn’t always a bad thing.

“The driver of the #99 (Busch Series) hauler makes the best food” says Buzzy Reutimann, driver David Reutimann’s dad. “We leave the Cup haulers and go to the Busch hauler because he cooks so good!”

When asked just what is so good, Buzzy smiles, “He makes this cherry cobbler. And apple cobbler. Pretty much everything. It’s delicious.”

It isn’t just dinner that these guys make. “He makes breakfast, lunch, dinner. Keeps everyone well fed” Reutimann explains.

Jeff Gilbert is the cook Buzzy is raving about, but cooking isn’t his only job on race weekend. He is also the gas man during the race. So not only does he drive the hauler, feed the crew, and make sure they have everything they need…he works during the race as well. And when the race is over, he packs the truck up, carefully backs it out, and makes the trip home again.

The best part of the job?

“I like traveling; I like races…that’s the best part of the job.” Stump explains. “I’ve been a NASCAR fan since they televised the first one where they were all fightin’ down in turn four (of the 1979 Daytona 500). I’ve been a fan ever since.”

And now he, along with 46 other Cup Series 46 other Busch series hauler drivers, is lucky enough to be a very important part of NASCAR’s traveling road show.

He, and the others, are the keepers of the cars, the hardware…and most importantly, the food.

Because, as Buzzy explained, “It’s all about the food.”

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.