On the spot

Track spotters under scrutiny after ARCA fatality

Think spotting is easy? Try talking somebody through traffic at 160 mph (I don't mean cursing interstate idiots). It's a bit more complicated than uttering, "high," "low" or "clear" every few minutes, and now it's mandatory every time a driver takes the track in NASCAR's Truck, Busch or Winston Cup series.

Why? Racing is doubly dangerous without that second pair of eyes.

Last week's ARCA fatality at Lowe's Motor Speedway involved a spotter -- team owner Bob Schacht, who was spotting for his rookie driver, Deborah Renshaw, during a Wednesday practice. Her car T-boned Eric Martin's following a crash off Turn 4 -- after Martin had crashed ahead of her and radioed his crew that he was fine.

Here is where the details get murky. Renshaw apparently didn't know his status, couldn't slow down, etc. The circumstances remain a mystery. Her vehicle hit Martin's at a speed estimated at 160 mph, and the collision killed Martin and inflicted significant left leg injuries upon Renshaw.

Schacht was spotting for Renshaw atop the team hauler in the ARCA garage. Some people more familiar with the track and the job than I say that's not the greatest place for an unobstructed view of Turn 4 at Lowe's. But no matter what happened -- or who was at fault -- the microscope has been trained on Schacht, who has yet to say a public word. Research indicates he's a racing veteran, a former driver who apparently knows the sport's nuances, which includes how to talk a driver around a track.

The ultimate aftermath is for ARCA officials to sort out. Series president Ron Drager said prior to Friday's season finale that one result likely will mirror NASCAR's reaction: Spotters will be asked to do business all weekend from their race-day perches.

That's usually high atop a grandstand or tower. Even then, it's not foolproof. Any NASCAR spotter will tell you there's a blind spot through Turn 3 at Richmond International Raceway where they can't see and can't help. At the road courses and Indianapolis, where the track wanders beyond main-tower view, most teams use two spotters.

Winston Cup series director John Darby says he's comfortable with the issue.

"Will it change the Winston Cup series?" he asked Saturday as the new rule was being announced at the Busch series drivers meeting. "No, because it's already happening. It might relocate that person. But the spotters in the Winston Cup garage, we have the caliber of people and the professional talents in this garage, when they spot for their car, they make sure they can see. You know?"

No one knows this better than David Green.

As the eldest of three driving brothers from Owensboro, Ky., Green has been there, done that in the Busch Series. He's a former champion (1994) who's competed against brother Mark, another Busch veteran, and brother Jeff, the 2000 Busch champion.

And in this, his first season since 1990 without a full-time ride, David Green has spent a big chunk of his time talking other guys around the horn.

He's learned that it requires more than a good voice and the ability to be a cheerleader. When, how much and what detail one relays is usually dictated by driver preferences, but concentration and anticipation must be constant.

"Now there are some good spotters that have probably never driven a car, and to say they're not as good as driver-spotters, I couldn't say that because there's some very good ones out there," David said. "But I think it never hurts to know what that driver's feeling and seeing."

His introduction to the job came last year, when his brother Mark spotted for him.

"To me it was heaven, not because he's my brother, but he was a driver knowing what I was probably needing to hear at what times," David said. "So it really worked hand-in-hand. Plus, on top of that, being my brother, I could cuss him if I needed to."

When the elder Green found himself without a ride this year, he donned headphones for his brother Mark, Larry Foyt and Kevin Grubb, among others.

"A lot of drivers are like, 'OK, if I'm not driving this week, I'm not going to be here,'" David said. "I never could tell myself to do that, because I needed to be here. Watching the race from the pits can be kind of boring, so there's not a better place to watch than upstairs, and I might as well try to be helping somebody."

Three months into the season, Green replaced Roman Pemberton as Dale Jarrett's spotter. The gig began in April, at California -- the day after Green had spotted a Busch race -- and lasted through mid-August at Watkins Glen (Green also stood in for Eddie Masencup, Bobby Labonte's spotter, at the second Dover event). But his ongoing search for a full-time Busch ride made it impossible to continue.

Jarrett's longtime spotter, Bob Jeffrey, replaced Green, who said last week's ARCA tragedy "is exactly why the other spotter came back, and I quit spotting because I could not be here on Friday when those cars rolled out on the track."

Logistics weren't a problem when Cup and Busch were companion events. But when the series separated, Green would fly in Sunday for race-day duties.

"I think when he won Pocono I only had a couple hours' sleep," Green said of Jarrett's June win. "I'd been in Nashville and turned around and caught a plane to go to Pocono, and I was like, 'woo.' And here we won the race. I got a breath of fresh air then."

Team owner Robert Yates finally had to bring back Jeffrey to spot for Jarrett.

"Robert felt like that I get discouraged or disappointed on it, but I totally understood," Green said. "Because from a driver's viewpoint, I want my spotter up there the whole time. It's unfortunate that that happened the way it did the other day, but that's a prime example why Robert wanted somebody up there all the time for D.J., and that's why I would want somebody for there for myself.

"There's so many things that can go wrong."

Like most of us, Green can't fathom what happened last Wednesday. He does know that inexperienced drivers must learn upper series' protocol of slowing and coming to pit road any time there's a practice caution. And he knows Schacht probably didn't have the personnel or resources to delegate that day.

"I feel bad for him, because knowing him, he was down there working on the race car, then ran up on the truck and tried to watch," Green said. "Try to do a lot of jobs."

Green also knows the pain of making a wrong -- or controversial -- call. He cites Jarrett's "Big One," in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona.

"I told him, 'I'm going do everything I can to give you a competitive edge plus watch out for the wreck,'" Green said. "And after the situation -- we were the wreck -- and we were at a competitive nature at that point, I might have instructed him to do some things that were detrimental even though he supported me in saying, 'Hey, I was going to do it anyway.'

"That's the worst I've ever felt. But we're out there to win the race and sometimes spotting gets to be as much a competition as on the race track."

Green says he'd only trade spotting for a full-time seat, a possibility after he hangs up his helmet. HJ loved working with Jarrett, but now he's back at work, too. Last week, Rick Hendrick tabbed Green to replace son Ricky -- who's still fighting wreck effects -- for the rest of the season on the No. 5 Busch team. It's a bittersweet thing for Green, who coached the younger Hendrick as he prepared for his NASCAR career.

"I'm sure the more we get into it, the more I can relay some of my information, experience to that benefit," Green said. "But right now, I'm shutting up and driving."

Denise N. Maloof covers NASCAR for CNNSI.com.

 

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