MILE MARKER 61
Every time that we are driving down the interstate and see one of these colorful Nascar transporters, we always think, "Man, now that would be a cool driving job to have." It's a hard gig to land. If you've dreamt like I have, keep dreaming. The drivers are usually someone related to the driver, or someone that performs other duties also, like jumping over the wall with the pit crew.
The salary for the driver is somewhere between $70,000 to $100,00, depending on if they work the pit or not. The typical working season runs from early February to late November. That's sixteen weeks of "Balls to the wall." In between races, the transporter is driven to the home base and cars are swapped out for those that are set up for the next track. A couple of days off on Monday and Tuesday at the yard, but still getting ready for the next race.
Transporters are like a garage on wheels. It is a standard height trailer at 13' 6", and it holds the primary race car as well as a back-up, tools, and enough parts to build a race car from scratch. The professional race car driver, pit crew, and mechanics mostly fly all the time, but still we hear truck drivers hollering on the C.B radio to see if the super star is in there. The truck driver is in charge of keeping the rig spotless. The paint scheme is sponsorship related and that's the last thing they want to see is a dirty trailer parked at a race representing their company. Sponsors shell out millions of dollars for this advertising.
A recommendation for getting your foot through the door at Nascar is maybe start by taking a job with a sanctuary body instead. Their are many behind-the- scene jobs. This results in meeting people in the industry, and could possibly lead to a job with a team. Rare, but stranger things happen.
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