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NASCAR crew chief 'wrestles with the right stuff' Thursday, Jun 3, 2010 By Lee Warren |
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All the more reason for him to seek God for direction. “As a family, we do a lot of praying on everything we do – on every aspect of this sport,” Martin said. “I don’t pray every weekend to have a win or anything else; as much as anything, I pray to make sure we’re in the right position. “Even when things don’t seem like they’re going right and we don’t understand why (God’s) moving me from driver to driver, I feel like there’s a bigger plan and I just ride it out because in the end it always works out even though I can’t see what’s happening right now.” In April 2009, the organization Martin works for – Richard Childress Racing – decided to shuffle crew chiefs since the organization was struggling to produce good finishes. Martin started the 2009 season as the crew chief for Casey Mears, driver of the No. 07 car, and Childress moved him and his team over to work with Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 29 car. In 2007 and 2008, Martin was the crew chief for Clint Bowyer, who drove the No. 07 car at the time. As changes and challenges comes, Martin depends on the spiritual nourishment, encouragement and advice provided by Motor Racing Outreach through chapel services and one on one conversations with the staff. “They are in the front row of every chapel service,” said Tim Griffin, the vice president and director of spiritual formation at MRO and the lead chaplain for the Sprint Cup Series. “Gil is always engaging about what we’re talking about as he tries to figure out how to make good decisions for his family and manage his walk with God while he manages a team. He’s the real deal. He has a real sense of what it means to try to walk by faith. He wrestles with the right stuff.” While it’s no longer the case since becoming Harvick’s crew chief, one of the things Martin wrestled with over the past few seasons is presiding over a race team sponsored by Jack Daniels, as was the case when he was the crew chief for Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears. Martin calls it a crossroads for him personally because he was concerned about the message it might send his son Ford, who is 14 now. He would have been 10 or 11 when the dilemma began. Ford and Martin’s wife, Ronda, travel to the race track on quite a few race weekends. Martin says Ford is a fixture in the garage, which means he wears the team jersey. Even that created a dilemma for Martin. “I had to figure out ways to get the RCR logo and the 07 number on the jersey without the sponsorship on there,” Martin said. “It actually worked out really well. He’s 14 now, but he’s become mature enough that he knows the decisions that need to be made. A lot of times in this environment he’s going to hear things he doesn’t need to hear, but he hears them at school too. But I think it’s led him to know the differences between right and wrong and he knows what to do.” Martin consulted with MRO while he wrestled with the situation. NASCAR teams depend on sponsorships to cover costs and teams have multiple sponsors, which means that on any given week a member of a race team who is trying to hold true to his personal Christian convictions might struggle internally about one of the sponsors. The situation drove Martin to prayer. As he sought God, he began holding a team prayer before the team meeting at each race. God began to move – both in Martin’s heart and in the heart of his team. He says his team began to expect the team prayer and his desire to see his team members place their faith in Christ grew as well. “Gradually, we’ve been getting more of the guys – we’ve probably got about 12 or 14 guys who are regularly going to church [MRO chapel services] now on Sunday morning when we go and we try to take one more with us each weekend.” What started out as a personal prayer for guidance and direction turned into a move of God that might have made some people uncomfortable at first, but God is bigger than man’s comfort levels. “It was kind of weird at first – to show up in church with a Jack Daniels suit on,” Martin said. “But it was kind of calming actually. At first, everybody was a little bit nervous, but by the same token, you are there for what you’re there for.” --30--
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