Hammond has come long way

Gil Kaminer

Thursday, June 8, 2000 | 8:47 a.m.

Crew chief Jeff Hammond sits near a shiny, sleek car almost pining for the old days of dented-up racers on dusty dirt tracks.

"We used to bring up the cars on flatbed trucks. It was a much simpler time," Hammond said.

There's nothing simple about the trucks used nowadays. At Michigan Speedway this weekend, Hammond will unload Chad Little's Ford from a hauler that's really a traveling race shop and prepare a Winston Cup car for the 501st time.

He has learned much in more than a quarter-century on the NASCAR circuit, and has called the shots for 43 victories in 19 years. No active crew chief has won nearly as many races.

And none certainly can match his record for high-profile bosses - from Darrell Waltrip to Junior Johnson to Rick Hendrick to Jack Roush.

Hammond started as a tire changer for Waltrip in 1974. Eight years later, he became a crew chief for Waltrip, who by that time was driving for Johnson.

"I went to Junior and told him I wanted the opportunity to run a team," Hammond said.

That was 1982, when Waltrip won 12 races and Hammond got the first of his two championships as a crew chief. He and Waltrip were together for one more title, and would share another 31 trips to the winner's circle.

The most unforgettable came in 1989, when Waltrip's bad luck in the Daytona 500 reversed itself and he won by stretching his gas.

The 53-lap run was met with skepticism. But NASCAR didn't find the type of hidden hoses sometimes used by cheating crew chiefs to increase the fuel load. Asked how much gas remained in the tank, an inspector said: "For $5 I'd drink it."

Waltrip, who won the race on his 17th try, said afterward that Hammond was a cheerleader as they wondered if they could make the final four laps when the fuel pressure began to flirt with zero.

"Each time I thought I was out, I told Jeff and he'd say, 'Shake, baby, shake,"' Waltrip said, meaning swerve the car slightly to slosh the remaining fuel around. "I said, 'I can make it.' Then I drafted, and I drafted and I drafted."

Although he was clean that day, Hammond was to be caught in what is called "the gray area."

Later in 1989, during a pre-race inspection at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR found a fake radio weighing 25 pounds. The idea would be to remove the radio after the car weighed in, then race at the lighter weight.

"When I caught that thing, we told Jeff if he wanted to wear it all during the 600, we wouldn't fine him," Dick Beaty, then Winston Cup director, said at the time. "If he didn't wear it, we were going to fine him $500.

"I fined him $500."

Hammond laughs about it now.

"I wasn't going to wear that thing," he said. "And I didn't put it in there."

A few weeks ago, the 43-year-old Hammond saw a tape of the 1979 Daytona 500, when he was with Johnson but not yet a crew chief.

"One of my first lessons came that day," Hammond said. "We had an opportunity to win but didn't. Junior didn't get mad. I remember thinking, 'I'm not doing anything my boss doesn't do. If he gets excited, I'll get excited.'

"That's when I first realized that there is going to be another race. You just have to put it behind you and look forward."

Hammond recalls a race in the 1980s in Richmond, Va., where Waltrip was trailing Dale Earnhardt with about 12 laps to go.

"Junior got on the radio and told Darrell, 'Go now. Pass him, I mean pass him now,"' Hammond remembered. "Darrell was just being patient, but Junior told him to go. With Darrell trying to pass, Earnhardt bumped him and sent him into the wall.

"Well, Darrell and Dale were going to get into it. Junior says, 'I better go on down and help my driver 'cause he's about to get into a fight with Dale.' I remember thinking that it was a throwback to the old dirt-racing days."

Roush Racing driver Little finished 20th last Sunday in Dover, Del., in Hammond's 500th race as crew chief. It's been a struggle for both. They've not won together, with a second-place finish in 1998 their best showing.

But Hammond has no plans to quit anytime soon.

"When I have trouble getting up for a race, I'll know it is time to stop," he said. "To this day I still get excited when they say 'Gentlemen, start your engines."'

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On the Net:

Hammond: http://www.roushracing.com