car chief | Steven "Bones" Lane | Holiday Inn Express | San Francisco

population.

But consider this: Road crews spend an average of 160 days a year on the road, many of those in towns most people wouldn't consider driving through, and they don't see anything but the backside of a Holiday Inn Express and the inside of a racetrack. Their per diem is $25 per day on the road, whether­ they're in San Francisco or at Pocono. They have families, but they don't see them as much as they do each other, nor do they see much of the sun. It's a grueling life. "We go to lots of places, but all we see are the same old racetracks," says Mike "Mongo" Bodick (mechanic and gas man, car 42).

11 a.m.
Prerace NASCAR inspections take place in the Garage, with cars lined up down a 100-yard line of massive toolbox wagons, colorful sponsorship logos, and frantically working crews. Engines on these six-figure Fords, Chevys, Dodges, and Toyotas roar as RPMs are pushed to their limits to check timing before ratchets and wrenches start clanking in a chorus of bangs and pows as engines are literally dismantled and rebuilt. The atmosphere is one of controlled panic. A day earlier, the crews stripped the cars after the final practice, removing, replacing, and adjusting every nut and bolt. Each crew member is responsible for a specific section and signs off on a checklist a mile long. If your John Hancock is on something that fails during the race, the only cars you'll be working on are those at the local pinewood derby.

After the inspection parade, the cars go to Tech, a barrage of template fittings and scales at various stations around the Garage. NASCAR officials use preset templates to measure fender to bumper, across the hood, from tire to tire - each and every angle of the chassis is checked and rechecked to ensure equality among cars. The whole thing appears on the up-and-up, but you get the idea that lines get blurred around here. When car 41's right front bumper doesn't fit the wheelbase gauge, Steven "Bones" Lane (car chief, car 41) whacks it into place a few times with a fist and a smile. It still doesn't fit. He bangs it a few more times, and eventually it passes. Before the next station, Bones bends it right back to where it was in the first place.