Preston Cordell relishes his duties as Sprint Cup crewman

By Jay Pfeifer - NASCAR Illustrated

Thursday, November 12, 2009

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On the most basic level, just setting foot inside a race track is a dangerous act. Anywhere 3,500-pound cars thunder by at triple-digit speeds, physical harm is just a blown tire or bad turn away for drivers, team members and spectators alike.

But some people at the track face more danger than others. Take the gasman on a pit crew: Only he steps over the wall cradling an 85-pound Molotov cocktail-to-be inches from his head. It must be scary — or at least unnerving — to be the vehicle for gallons of flammable fluid amidst the chaos of a pit stop. Right?

“I don’t even think about it,” says Preston Cordell, gasman for the No. 1 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet driven by Martin Truex Jr. “Because I don’t want to think about it.”

A little gallows humor can go a long way, too.

“We have a team joke with the fireman in our pit. We all say, ‘If it does happen — if the gas catches on fire — please put me out first.’”

Fortunately, Cordell, 40, has never needed the fireman’s attention. Part of his fortune, of course, can be credited to good luck. But most of all, it’s due to the simple fact that he’s good at what he does.

In May, Cordell emerged (with his catch-can man, Eric “Pee Wee” Hoyle) as the fastest gasman in the 2009 Sprint Pit Crew Challenge.

“Short of winning the Cup or the Daytona 500, that was the biggest thing I could imagine,” he said. “I finally pulled it off; I had been trying for years. It was like a huge weight was lifted. I’m just a gasman, but to know that at least for one day I was the best out there, is huge for me.”

So, what makes Cordell such a good gasman?

According to Walt Smith, pit crew coach for the No. 1 team, it’s Cordell’s attitude.

“The gasman used to be the over-the-hill guy who couldn’t change tires anymore,” Smith says. “They didn’t have to do much.

“Today, they have to be very involved. Preston never misses a meeting or a practice. He’s a hard worker and very dedicated. He’s the ultimate team player.”

Despite being a lifelong race fan, Cordell didn’t go over the wall until he was 32. He grew up in Florida and worked on dirt cars his whole life and in his early 20s, he was getting ready to make a run at big-time racing as a NASCAR mechanic.

“Then, life just got in the way,” he says.

Instead of turning wrenches, he had to get a regular job. (Today, Cordell is a “weekend warrior,” he sells restaurant equipment five days a week and spends his weekends at the track.)

Eight years ago, some clients and friends persuaded him to go to an open audition for a pit crew. He got the job.

Since then, Cordell has climbed the ladder, pitting for ARCA, Truck, Nationwide and Cup series teams.

“My first gig with ARCA, my uniform was black jeans, a T-shirt and my hat turned around backwards,” he says.

Today, his equipment and his job are much more sophisticated.

Decked out in three layers of clothing (a layer of Nomex beneath a two-layer firesuit) and a full-face helmet, his uniform may keep him safe but that security brings one major inconvenience.

“I get hot,” he says. “We try to train for it. We practice like we play. Hydration is important. I’ll start drinking water on Friday to get ready.”

Though the title makes his job sound simple, a Cup series gasman does more than just dump fuel into a race car.

Cordell weighs the gas cans before and after stops to determine how much gas made it in the fuel cell, and that helps the team figure out fuel mileage. (That’s one of the many reasons a gas spill is so troublesome. Not only is it a fire hazard, the lost fuel introduces uncertainty into the team’s calculations.)

“When [crew chief Kevin ‘Bono’ Manion] calls and wants to know how much gas we have to put in for a ‘gas and go,’ I need to know,” he says. “There are engineers who back up my claim but when it comes to determining how long a stop like that will be, that’s my call.”

And during a stop, Cordell doesn’t just hold the gas can. He also mans the wrench for all left-side chassis adjustments.

“When I plug in, the catch-can man takes the can, I make my adjustment and get back for the second can,” he says.

Even his primary job — getting gas in the car — requires more finesse than is readily apparent.

“When Martin pulls out, I actually keep the can in and take a few steps with the car,” he says. “There’s some back pressure in the fuel cell that develops when the catch-can comes off and we can squeeze a little more gas in there that way.”

Fortunately for Cordell, getting the job done is a shade easier this year. Thanks to the longer stud lengths on the wheel hubs, tire changers need a few tenths of a second longer to get all the lug nuts off and on. That gives Cordell a small but significant cushion to get his job done unobtrusively.

“A stop in the mid-13s is pretty good right now,” he says. “So that means it’s more important than ever to stay out of the way of the changer.”

– This story originally appeared in the August 2009 issue of NASCAR Illustrated.