Two sides of the shop

I'm a Mac. I'm a PC.

A visit to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing just outside Charlotte is an amazing trip.

High above the shop floor are windowed offices, filled with engineers. They are the “Macs.” The gearheads below are the PCs. That's how Brad Zimmerman of EGR describes it. One designs and tests on paper, or computer program. The other is the hands-on builder.

Brad said the engineers have the capability to design a part and test it through computer software, long before the actual construction of the part. The actual builders of each part, each panel, each component of the racecar, are the ones who take a piece of sheet metal and form or weld it into a piece of the car.

On a tour of the shop this week, he provided insight to the workings of a race shop, discussing sponsorship and what it means to the team, and a display of the Jamie MacMurray cars which were winners at The Brickyard and The Daytona 500. The Daytona car was just returned to the company after Jamie Mac's 2010 win. Most interesting is the confetti, melted onto the car.

If you look at the Indy Series and NASCAR, Zimmerman said both cars have specific safety features designed which provide vastly different results. Earnhardt-Ganassi has cars in both series. The Indy Car is designed to essentially disintegrate and take the force of any wreck away from the driver. Stock cars, on the other hand, are made in such a way the shock of a wreck is absorbed and the features are made to protect the driver.

Ganassi is a racer. He is in it for the sport of the sport. And Zimmerman appreciates that. He also recognizes that every person is an important component to the whole, from the engineers to the guys fabricating parts, to the folks who load the cars and tools on the trucks each week. The drivers are the public faces. The team from the top to the bottom, makes the success.

He also is also cognitive of the fact that those builders, those hands-on folks, the ones in the trenches are a dying breed. They are not choosing the math and science. They are not choosing the jobs on the floor, bringing life to the designs of the engineers behind the windows.

And that's what it will take to continue the sport and advance the technology.