Experience Is Calling Shots At K&N Pro Series Level

Ron Otto thought his traveling days were through when his duties at Richard Childress Racing shifted a few years ago. But being that the Columbus, Ohio, native is – by his own admission – a racer at heart, it wasn’t long before he had the itch again.

In fact, before he even realized said itch to be at the race track existed, he was ready already racing virtually every weekend.

“I traveled for 18 years for different teams,” said Otto, who is now the crew chief for Brandon Gdovic in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. “I’m a racer. When I’m not working, I’m racing. After I stopped traveling, I did a couple K&N races with Jake Crum (in 2010) – and we ran pretty good, it fulfilled the need for a couple of races for me, and it gave me the itch.

“It’s a second full-time job for me. Again, if I’m not doing this, I’m doing some dirt racing with my son, or I’m doing some consulting with other teams on dirt and asphalt. Most every weekend I’m at a race somewhere.”

Last season, Otto led Corey LaJoie to within a whisker of winning the K&N Pro Series championship. He picked up right where he led off this year, leading Gdovic to his first career victory at Greenville Pickens Speedway in the spring. A template specialist at Michael Waltrip Racing by day, Otto has nearly 40 races on his resume as a crew chief at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series levels.

Otto isn’t alone.

A series dominated by young, aspiring drivers has a wealth of veteran experience calling the shots atop the pit boxes and behind the scenes. From Turner Scott Motorsports competition director Mike Greci to  Rev Racing crew chief Mark Green, NASCAR’s national series are finding their way to the K&N Pro Series through a lot more than driver development programs.

There’s Doug George, Lee McCall, Mark McFarland, Wes Ward, Mardy Lindley – all either accomplished drivers or crew chiefs in one of NASCAR’s three national series, and all now crew chiefs in the K&N Pro Series East.

Five years ago, Mark Green never imagined he’d be a winning crew chief in this series.

“Back then I thought, ‘Well, I still love to drive the cars,’” said Green, who has more than 300 career Nationwide Series starts on his driving resume. “I’d done it forever, but I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. It really evolved into what I’m doing now with the way economy and the sponsorship side of it was going. It took opportunities away from me as a driver, so on the other side of it, I probably thought crew chief would be my next stop.

“It’s not only me, but a lot of the guys that drove back when I was starting out – we built our own cars, we set them up, we did the maintenance. It was kind of a natural progression to become a crew chief.”

Ryan Gifford is happy to have Green working as the crew chief on the No. 2 Rev Racing Toyotas. In his fourth full season in the series, Gifford grabbed his first career win at Richmond International Raceway this season.

Green understands that part of his role extends beyond race track setups. He knows that he can help shape a driver like Gifford – who will make his Nationwide Series debut at Iowa Speedway next week – as he climbs the NASCAR ladder.

“I’ve been through the experiences and stuff like that,” Green said. “Basically for Ryan, I can kind of help him – not necessarily become a better driver, because he’s very good – but I can help him see the pitfalls to avoid and help him on his way there.”

Greci, who worked at the national level for a good portion of his career with drivers like Martin Truex Jr. and Mike McLaughlin, and more recently with Danica Patrick and Travis Pastrana, enjoys the K&N Pro Series. He’s won three championships as a crew chief in the series, including back-to-back ones with Ryan Truex in 2009-2010.

“I enjoy it here at this level,” Greci said. “I enjoy the enthusiasm the kids come in with. I’ve been Cup racing. I’ve been Nationwide racing. But this is where I want to be.

“Kids don’t have any bad habits. They haven’t learned everything yet, and that makes it a good teaching position to be in for me. These kids don’t come in with mindset that they know how to do it all already. When we walked into Bristol (earlier this season), all five of our drivers had never even seen the place before.”

While the “kids” might not have learned every trick in the book just yet, the crew chiefs they’re paired with certainly have. With any number of teams capable of contending for Victory Lane on race day, you can be certain the signal-callers are pulling out all the stops in their stuffed notebooks.

“You know, not really a whole lot of what I do (at MWR) helps me with the K&N stuff,” Otto said, “but my past experience that I carried into this certainly does. Basically, it’s simple, old-school, ‘we’re going racing’ here. A lot of us are doing what we were doing before we moved down here to work.

“Sure, there are some things – springs, coil binding, that stuff – where there’s a direct correlation between (the K&N Pro Series and the national series), but there’s really not a whole lot else. We’re running totally different setups. Aero doesn’t come into play much here, where the Cup Series is all about aero. The cars, the setups, the technology, it’s all very similar to what we had 10-15 years ago. The biggest thing is just that the competition is a lot tougher.”

Green likened the K&N Pro Series today to what the Nationwide Series was four or five years ago. When he looks at the knowledge and technology that’s being utilized, he can’t help but see the similarities.

And he also can’t help but fight the urge to drive again.

“We actually went to Motor Mile three or four weeks ago and tested for a day, and I told Ryan that I’d probably like to shake this car down a little bit,” Green said with a chuckle. “We had all four teams there, and he went out there and ran a good lap right off. He did all the right things, so I figured I didn’t have to go out there and do it.

“I would love to continue to crew chief or some type of manager-type job. I love the racing. It’s all I’ve ever done.”

NASCAR PR