Young fuel-runner eyes 'other side of racing'

The sound of a roaring stock car engine fills the air outside the Roush Fenway Racing headquarters in Concord. Tires screech as the car slides into the practice pit area. High powered drills whine as the pit crew replaces two tires at a time.

Then it starts all over again.

Inside the buildings, race trophies line a table in the conference room, where the sound of tools and loud voices can be heard in the garage, where crews are getting ready for the start of the NASCAR season.

It's another day at the office for 18-year-old Joey Fennig.

Joey is the fuel runner for Roush Fenway NASCAR Sprint Cup (the highest division of the sport) driver David Ragan. It's his third year working for the team.

Joey grew up around NASCAR. His father, Jimmy, was a crew chief for several prominent drivers including Bobby Allison, Mark Martin and Dick Trickle. In 2004, Jimmy won the Sprint Cup Championship with Kurt Busch.

Despite being around the track and drivers so much, Joey said he never actually wanted to race. The closest he comes to racing is going to the go-kart track with his friends.

"After always watching my dad be a crew chief, I was interested in doing that," he said. "I've always been interested in the other side of racing."

In 2007, Jimmy started as the crew chief for Ragan, a rookie. In May of the same year, Joey volunteered at a race in Richmond. He continued working as a volunteer for the rest of the season.

"I did whatever they needed," Joey said, including cleaning parts and cleaning cars.

In January 2008 he was officially hired to work on the team part time. He was a junior at Hickory Ridge High School in Harrisburg at the time. His senior year, he was able to count working at the race shop as a class credit, allowing him to only take four classes.

After graduating, Joey started classes at UNC Charlotte.

"My parents told me I had to go to college," he said. "And Jack (Roush) told me if I didn't go I would get fired."

That was enough motivation for Joey. He is undecided about what he will major in, but is thinking about studying either business or engineering.

He said college is nicer because he can work his class schedule around racing time. He only has classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and two of his classes are online so he can spend the weekends at the track getting ready for Sunday races.Balancing a 15-hour class schedule with a 40-hour work week at the shop isn't easy.

"College is a lot tougher than it was in high school," Joey said.

All he has time for is "racing and school," he said.

He said his friends are not very interested in racing. He tries to keep his personal life and racing life separate.

"I try not to talk about it in front of them," Joey said. Occasionally a friend will ask a question about a race, but that's it.

Joey worked under his dad for the first two years with Ragan's team. He said working for his dad had its ups and downs, but he learned a lot.

"The worst part was going home," he said. He would always hear about what went wrong in the shop or on the track.

Jimmy moved to work as head of testing operations for Roush Fenway Racing this year, leaving Joey on the crew without his dad for the first time.

"It feels good to finally go off on my very own," Joey said. He wants to eventually follow in his father's footsteps and become the crew chief of a racing team.

But Joey says his father wanted him to pursue a career playing golf. Joey played golf for his high school team.

"He actually didn't want me to get into racing," Joey said. "He didn't really put any pressure on me."

Joey describes his dad as "old school" and someone that wants to "fly under the radar." He doesn't like to do interviews. He was testing for the upcoming Daytona 500 last week and was unavailable for an interview.

The Daytona 500 on Feb. 14 is the focus of everyone in the race shop. Joey said this year will be weird because it's his first as a fuel runner. He will fill up the fuel cans before each race, grab the first empty one during a pit stop and refill them after the team has weighed them to determine fuel mileage. The year before, his job was to hand the new left-front tire to the tire changer.

Joey has simple goals for himself and the team this year.

"I want to continue to grow and do better than I've done in the past," he said

He hopes Ragan can win a race this year and make it to the Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR's version of a playoff.

Joey is constantly trying to improve and get better everyday to make himself and the team more competitive. That's what he says he loves about racing.

"I'm learning stuff everyday," Joey said. "You can see yourself grow."

"The competitiveness is what keeps me going in this."

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