This entry, the third in a series, was submitted by AAA’s Christie Hyde who accompanied the winners on their job-shadowing trip. Read all posts here.

After a spending a day at the track with the DeWALT Racing team, day three of our trip took us to Roush Fenway Racing, where the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills national champs spent the day alongside the team during final prep for this weekend’s race.

Roush Fenway Racing has an entire complex located in Concord, North Carolina, that houses its administrative offices, Sprint Cup Series race shop, fabrication and body hanging shop, paint shop, dyno, photo studio, seven-post rig and pit stop practice facility. The complex also has a museum and gift shop that’s free and open to the public Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, and closed from noon until 1 p.m. lunch.

While the Sprint Cup Series shop is not open to the public, visitors can see a small section of it through viewing windows located in the lobby. But as Auto Skills national champs, Justin, Matt and their instructor Mark were granted unprecedented access to Roush Fenway’s entire complex to see the inner workings of the legendary race team. 

When we arrived, the DeWALT team was performing final preparation on the race car for this weekend’s race at Pocono. At first, the national champs observed and listened as crew members explained how each of them has a specific area of the car that they are responsible for and they each have their own set of tools while in the race shop. But once at the track, they all work out of the same large toolbox.

However, the observation didn’t last too long, as soon the DeWALT team was putting Justin, Matt and Mark to work on helping them get ready for the race. They took the race car across the street to the fabrication and body hanging shop where the team has templates set up to make sure the car meets NASCAR’s strict guidelines for body work. While over there, the guys got to take a tour of the full shop and see how Roush Fenway Racings race cars are built — something only seen by a very select few. No cameras were even allowed in the building.

Next up was pit stop practice for the DeWALT over-the-wall pit crew. During the off-season last year, Roush Fenway Racing built a pit stop practice facility large enough to hold four pit stalls and allows crews  to practice in race-like conditions, with multiple cars pulling into the pits and jockeying for their spot on pit lane. We got a first-hand look at how dangerous being a pit crew member can be when one of the team members had his foot clipped by a passing race car—and incident that can easily happen during a race during a busy round of pit stops. After the official pit crew practice, Justin, Matt and Mark got to try their hand working as pit crew member. And one thing they quickly discovered is that it’s not as easy as it looks. One the pit stop coaches walked them through the intricacies of three positions on the pit crew — the tire changer, the tire carrier and the jack man. And then, the guys got a chance to practice each of the positions—getting coached along the way to improve their technique. They learned a key to changing the tire is never lifting your finger off the trigger of the air gun and how you kneel on the ground is critical to keeping up your speed. When carrying the tire, it’s all about where you place your feet and hands to swing the tire into position properly. And as a jack man, it takes a lot of power and practice to hoist that race car into the air with just one push on the jack. The guys definitely worked up an appetite during pit crew practice, so we heading over to a local favorite for lunch—R&R Bar-B-Que—known for its eastern North Carolina-style, vinegar-based pork barbeque. After lunch, it was time to being loading the race hauler so it could begin its trek to Pocono Raceway. Justin, Matt and Mark pitched in and found there’s a lot more than race car parts and tools that go onto the truck. In addition to all of mechanical and technical supplies, you also need food supplies. Feeding a hungry race team is no easy task. The team brings a propane gas grill to the races and huge supply of food to prepare meals, as well as snacks and lots of refreshments.

Right after DeWALT team and Auto Skills champs loaded the final item into the hauler — the race car — and shut the door, crew chief Drew Blickensderfer got out of a meeting and came out to tell them to take it back off. He wanted to make some additional adjustments to the car before sending it up to Pennsylvania. So, off came the race car and Justin and Matt helped the team with the final adjustments.

Meanwhile, the syndicated motorsports television show 3 Wide Life had come to the shop to get footage of the Auto Skills champs working with the team and later sat down with Drew Blickensderfer, Matt and Justin to talk about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  The episode featuring the Auto Skills winners will air in the next two to three weeks. Check the show’s web site for airtimes and stations in your area. The segment will also be available at that time on the AAA YouTube channel and Auto Skills fan page on Facebook.

After a full day in the race shop, we decided it was time to let loose and have some fun in the evening. We headed over to NASCAR Speedpark for lots of go-kart and simulator racing as well as miniature golf.