March 24th, 2010 
T.C. In case you don’t know what I do, I will take this opportunity to tell you. I’m on pit road every weekend changing tires for one of the many NASCAR teams. If you’ve watched a race live or seen one on TV, you have no doubt seen me work. You probably didn’t know it, but I was there. Working in racing is certainly a unique career choice, and sometimes I don’t know if people actually believe me when I tell them how I earn a living.
We’ve all been in those situations. You are talking to a friend whom you haven’t seen in years, or you are in one of many different social situations where you are meeting new people. At some point, the topic of what everyone does for a job comes up. When it comes to be my turn, it usually goes like this:
“Oh, you sell tractor parts, good deal. What do I do? I’m actually a tire changer in NASCAR. Yeah… Really.”
When I’m asked what I do, I’m already prepared for a lengthy explanation and the many questions to follow. Once they hear what it is that I do to earn money, they then want to know who I work for, how long I’ve been doing it, how I got into it, what I think about that one guy flipping the other guy at that one race, and so on and so forth. The questions always start out being centered around me specifically, and then they turn towards more general questions about NASCAR and racing.
For those of you who have friends who aren’t race fans, you probably know what I mean about the questions. When something big happens that they hear about, they come to you with questions because they know you are a NASCAR fan. But when they ask one question, you end up having to give a ten minute explanation, because they don’t know the back story and how it all works. And once you answer their question, they most likely have more. That is exactly how it goes for me in these situations.
But, I’ve been doing this long enough now that answering the questions is almost automatic. I’ve even got different versions of my explanation depending on how much I think this person knows about racing. Answering questions and talking with fans has probably helped me with this, as has doing this website.
I always wonder though, especially when I’m meeting new people, if after they find out what it is that I do, if they think I’m completely full of crap. Do they actually believe me, or do they maybe think I’m trying to impress them or screw with them? Or maybe they do actually believe me, but think I’m completely crazy for not having a “real” job.
Either way, I always get a kick out of the look on people’s faces when I say “tire changer.” You’d think I’d just told them that I play in traffic for a living or something crazy like that. Oh wait…
Related posts:
Posted in 
Tags: 
I get that when I tell people what I’m going to school for.
“Machinist?
What’s that?”
I also meet a lot of people who don’t know the back story about a lot of things in NASCAR and I get exactly what you are talking about.
HaHa! at the ‘playing in traffic’ bit… I think that sums it up.
-W
so what team do you work for? just wondering if you will tell me.
thanks
I have been a NASCAR fan since my first race in 1960, yeah way back then before national TV ! It was at Riverside, Ca. and I was just out of high school.
Having an unusual job is hard to explain to some people. When I was drafted in the Army, I was assigned to Special Services because I was an exceptonal athleted in high school and college. All I did was play sports while I did my 2 years for Uncle Sam…especially weird when some many of my friends went to Vietnam and got shot at or killed!
I was a drag racer in my teens and early adulthood (before marriage and kids!!!) and have loved racing of all types since then. Your job would have been a dream come true for me. I’m retired now and having fun going to races and love to read you guys, keep it up.
Colorado Cowboy
Sorry Marcus, if I told you what team, then my anonymity would be all but gone!
alright thats understandable
I live in a city (in the South no less) where basically no one is a NASCAR fan. They don’t hate it, just no one follows it. You really have to be friends with a bar tender to get a bar to flip even one TV on for the race!
So yeah, when something big happens (Carl Edwards crash, etc.)… everyone asks me about it.
Cool article and always enjoy the perspective of each of the Insiders. I’m a 30+ year stock car racing fan (local, asphalt and dirt tracks and NASCAR) from a non-traditional market. It took me until 2003 or so not to have to explain what NASCAR or stock car racing are, because the TV/media exposure was so limited. There are still only pockets of “our people” as we call them, or closet fans, that we’ll run across in our daily lives. They especially like our flashy, shiny, won’t get lost in the dark/woods team/crew jackets…so our explainations after that first question (or when they saw that big car go into the fence highlight the night before) still occur frequently. Keep up the good work!
@ TC
I thought you were going to tell Marcus that you’d have to kill him if you told him what team you work for. LOL
No shame in that. As long as your happy doing it. That’s what really matters. Sounds like you don’t like having too many days off.
I was a catch can man for 6yrs. I tell people what I do they just look at me like I’m nuts. Then I have to show them my catch can then they start to get it a little bit, then they say where at I say MIchigan Speedway and the question I get most is CAN YOU GET ME TO MEET JR!!
Oh boy I’m not on nascar team! Then a lot of people say what is a arca car!!! I’m a race fan I watch it all arca, cup, nationwide, trucks, drag everything. I don’t really understand so called race fans I meet that only watch cup cars why not watch other racing series??? If i can get one person to watch something other then only cup cars then I feel like I did my job!
I do watch the Busch/Nationwide and the Craftsman series. I tries watching the ARCA and other series and found out that I actually enjoyed Drifting of all things. Love Lucas Oils crazy stuff and have found out there is technology and huge effort in all the series. I guess I’m just a race-fan, regardless.
Damn this is a cool fan site. Thanks for putting it up.