Larry McReynolds pictured on the left

SHOOTIN’ THE SHIFT WITH LARRY MCREYNOLDS

JW Martin

It was shortly before 4 o‘clock, and Larry McReynolds was taking notes. Cars were beginning to congregate on pit road for qualifying, and the renowned crew chief turned broadcaster was scribbling on a clipboard. But the FOX television analyst wasn’t preparing for a broadcast, and neither was he captaining a racecar as a crew chief.

Stationed halfway down the Motor Mile Speedway front stretch on the back of a green golf cart, Larry McReynolds was merely taking down the qualifying times for his son and UARA competitor Brandon McReynolds and his crew chief Shawn Treadaway.

On this day, McReynolds wasn’t a T.V. celebrity or a celebrated crew chief. He was just a Dad. It was a humbling scene for a gentleman who has been at the helm of some of the greatest team triumphs in recent racing history.

For more than fifteen years –beginning in 1985 and ending in 2001-Larry McReynolds was a fixture in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series garage. Working for team owners like Robert Yates and Richard Childress, McReynolds became involved in some of the greatest moments in motorsports. McReynolds was the winning crew chief of the Great American Race in 1992, but he will forever be remembered as the captain of the crew who won the same race in ’98 with Dale Earnhardt. He was at the helm through Ernie Irvan’s near-fatal accident in 1994 at Michigan, and he was on top of the pit box when Irvan made his triumphant return two years later. In all, McReynolds notched 23 cup victories as the lead crewman- the majority of which coming with a fellow Alabama native by the name of Davey Allison.

On the night of July 19^th, McReynolds was positioned atop the Motor Mile Speedway VIP tower, spotting for a black and red number 28. While the driver may not have been as familiar as the numbered color scheme, a victory on this particular night could have been more special than all those other trophies combined. However, following the 150 lap feature, Brandon McReynolds finished a respectable ninth.

It was a successful night for a man who has had his share of success.

JM: JW Martin

LM: Larry McReynolds

JM: Talk about the Late Model team- how has it developed and how has Brandon progressed as a driver?

LM: I’m pretty impressed with how he’s progressed. He had never driven anything of this weight and this much power ‘till the first race of this year. He had run the Bandoleros for about seven years at Lowe’s [Motor Speedway] and around the south-east; he did win the Bandolero Nationals over in Nashville in 2005. Then we moved him to the Allison Legacy Series for two years, and that’s about half the weight of these cars, and about a fifth of the horsepower. So this was a pretty big jump. But I’ve been pleased.

As we were looking around at what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go about the middle of last year, the UARA series definitely seemed to be the way to go. Just the way the series is run and the competition- I really didn’t want to caught up in just running one weekly track, I wanted to do a traveling series, and this is pretty competitor friendly if you live in the Charlotte area. And like I said, the competition is unbelievable. I wouldn’t want to go somewhere where they didn’t have a lot of competition.

JM: Comparing the time spent as a Cup Series crew chief to the time spent

as a Late Model crew chief, can you draw comparisons to the two- are their similarities?

LM: I think there’s a lot of similarities. You know, obviously I’m actually not the crew chief on the Late Model team; I just try to help them as much as I can. I can’t be at that many races because of my schedule. But no matter if you’re trying to win Bandolero races or you’re trying to win UARA races or you’re trying to win Sprint Cup Series races, it’s all about people. It’s all about people working together and getting along; I preach this to these guys- you can have all the horsepower in the world and you can have the best driving racecar, but if you’re not communicating and you’re not getting along, it’s not gonna happen. If you’re doing all that, it’s hard to beat these people, if you’re not doing it, you’re not going to beat these guys.

JM: Much has been made of driver/crew chief combinations in recent years. Recalling your involvement with all those prominent drivers in the Cup Series- is there one particular driver/crew chief combination that you felt was the best fit?

LM: No question: Davey Allison. But I think it was because we were best friends. And I tell that to Brandon and Shawn all the time- that your relationship away from the race track is probably just as important or more important than your relationship at the race track. When I look back at all the drivers that I worked with, I don’t think it’s coincidental that I had the most success with the drivers that I had the closest friendships with. And Davey Allison was certainly one of those -Ernie Irvan- I mean, I had good relationships with all the drivers I worked with, but it seemed like the closest friendship/relationship was with Davey and Ernie, and I don’t think it’s coincidental that those are the two guys I had the most success with.

JM: That leads into my next question. Brandon sports the number 28- How significant is that number to the McReynolds family?

LM: Well, it’s very significant. It’s been the first time we’ve been able to get it in any series we’ve been in. When I started talking to Wink Bodenhamer back over the winter and she gave me the options and I heard the number 28, I didn’t go to Brandon and say we were gonna run the 28 number, but I went to him and said here are some options, what would you think about running the number 28? And, you know, Brandon was so young when I was having the success with the 28 number, I’m not sure he remembers that much about it, but he knew it was pretty special to me. So yeah, to put it on that black car and to put it with that florescent red- pretty special.

JM: What do you enjoy most about your current profession as an analyst, and does the job afford you enough time to get involved in Brandon’s career to your satisfaction?

LM: I’d love to be involved more. I work on it at the shop a lot, I’m just not able to attend that many races. You know, out of the 16 races this year, this is only the second one I’ve been to. And I’ll get to make 4 or 5 more. But at the same time, I have to make a living to be able to support what we’re doing and everything else for my family.

You know, people ask me all the time if I miss being a crew chief. And my answer is always the same: absolutely. If I didn’t miss it I’d feel like I wasted 18 years of my life. But I think being able to work with Brandon and these guys –trying to help them solve problems and make their program better- kinda fills that competition void. Even though it was a very scary move back in 2001 moving from the pit box to the broadcast booth, it’s been a decision I’ve made that I’ve never looked back on and enjoy each and every broadcast we do.

JM: In your opinion, how has NASCAR changed over the years, and how much of it has been for the better and how much has changed for the worse?

LM: Well, I can’t say that anything has made it go for the worst. Obviously the cost of participating in the sport or even attending the sport is tough. It takes an awful lot of money to just participate, much less be competitive. And then because of where our economy is- the price of a gallon of gasoline makes it harder for our fans to come attend. But I think just the popularity, the growth and how fan accessible that it still is, which the France family has worked hard on keeping. And keeping it fairly squeaky clean- you know, there’s a lot of stick-and-ball athletes that I would not applaud Brandon having as a role model, but I don’t know of a guy in NASCAR that I would have a problem if he said he liked him and wanted to pull for him.

JM: Last question. Let’s say you’ve got the opportunity to eat at the best restaurant in the world for supper, and you can choose five people, dead or alive, to eat with you. Who would you choose and why?
LM: Wow, that’s a tough question there. Richard Petty would certainly be one of them. He’s such a class guy and he’s one of the drivers –even with the success he’s had- who never forgot what this sport was about, and that’s about the fan. Probably Davey Allison, just for personal reasons. I’d like to tell him how much I miss him and how much what he did meant to my career. I probably would not mind having dinner with Pat Summerall, because he was the broadcaster of broadcasters. Hank Aaron would be one, because I’ve always been such an avid Atlanta Braves fan. And Bill Parcells. Bill Parcells has always been one of my heroes. I think when I was a crew chief, in a small way I always tried to pattern myself in the way I carried myself and the way I handled people - the focus and the dedication, because I was always a big Bill Parcells fan and still am today.