U.S. Jobs Boom Pushes Team Hiring Into High Gear

There was a time in NASC
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R when getting a job in the sport meant you had to either know someone or be born into the industry. At the height of sports popularity teams would receive stacks of unsolicited resumes from all over, even though it was rare that a position on a team was filled from such a stack.

One of the goals when NASCAR’s Next Gen car was undergoing development was the cost savings. With the use of universal chassis and composite bodies, there was an expectation that there would be layoffs across the industry as teams eliminated positions such as fabricators and sheet metal technicians since these would be redundant given the single sourcing of parts. All this meant that finding a job in NASCAR would be even more difficult.

However, many of those technicians were retrained and kept, while some simply tired of the weekly grind of the sport and moved out of the industry. It seemed that workforce had balanced out. Yet today teams have openings. And like the rest of America, teams are finding those openings hard to fill.

Recently an employee at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) posted on social media, ‘If you’re looking to get into NASCAR, there’s never been a better time.’

Brett Frood, president of Stewart-Haas Racing agrees.

“The sport has continued its upward trajectory and momentum, highlighted by phenomenal TV viewership, increased attendance, energy with new fans, and overall excitement and positivity with the Next Gen car and its racing,” he said in an email interview. “We feel really confident in the health and sustainability of the series and its teams. So yes, it is absolutely a great time to get into the sport and build a long-term future within a top-tier sports property.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics there were 11.3 million open positions on the last business day of February this year. And hires and total separations were little changed at 6.5 million and 6.1 million, respectively. For all industries this means a labor shortage with employers searching harder than ever for people willing to fill open positions.

Frood admits that turnover rates, traditionally low in the NASCAR industry, are rising, but points out it’s not something isolated to the sport.

“Stewart-Haas Racing historically has had an extremely low turnover rate, but yes, there has been more attrition over the past 12 months,” he said. “Employee turnover rates have been on the rise across many sectors, so I don’t, by any means, think it is isolated to the NASCAR niche.”

Part of the reason the attrition rate has gone up was due to Covid, which changed the employment landscape for a lot of workplaces. It also allowed employees themselves to step back and think about their current work-life balance. All of that is true for the NASCAR industry as well.

Chase Briscoe was the NASCAR Cup series Rookie of the Year in 2021. He drives the No. 14 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup series. His first full year in the Cup series came during a season when NASCAR was recovering from the Covid shutdowns in the sport, however, he raced for the team in the Xfinity series in 2020 and has seen how Covid changed NASCAR. While he’s watched people on the team move to different roles, he said Covid gave others a chance to reflect.

“Covid just kind of changed the landscape of the sport,” Briscoe said. “We weren’t having people at the shop as much or weren’t sending them on the road; they went and found other things and realized that they could make maybe the same amount of money or a little less but be home a lot more. Just a lot more people in general got out of the sport. You know, it’s obviously a grueling schedule and a lot of those guys have given their whole life to racing and just wanted to try something different.”

Now with the recovery from Covid in full swing, many workplaces have emerged with a hybrid work model. They’ve adapted and pivoted to such things as remote work to attract and retain employees. For teams in NASCAR, that just isn’t possible. In addition to the long hours and weekly grind for a sport that lasts nearly an entire year, there is the unique nature of the work itself.

“We are an industry that relies on live, hands-on interactions, so not idyllic for those looking for flexible or remote work arrangements,” Frood said. “We’re also an industry that has worked extremely hard and competed throughout all the COVID challenges, and that probably triggered some pandemic burnout.”

For those outside the industry it may seem that NASCAR teams are comprised of nothing more than mechanics, crewmembers who perform the pit stops during races, and drivers. But Frood points out that there are many positions within a team.

“There are so many different employment opportunities within NASCAR – mechanics, welders, marketers, accountants, engineers, pit crew athletes, truck drivers, public relations professionals, social media managers, etc.,” he said.

Like the rest of the business world open positions today are harder to fill than ever before. And like the rest of the business world, teams like SHR have had to adapt.

“Like many other industries, we are beholden to the elasticity of supply and demand,” Frood said. “There are some specialized positions that have been difficult to fill. It’s up to us to then step up our employee development and training programs and adopt programs that are enticing to potential recruits.”

They have also found it challenging to attract and retain talent.

“We would be naïve to think the pandemic hasn’t had an effect on our workforce and increased the challenges in competing for and retaining talent,” he said. “So yes, the market has and will continue to require us to evolve and embrace new opportunities for development, collaboration, and human capital growth.”

Despite the fears that teams would be forced to lay off employees with the move to the new Next Gen car, in fact according to Frood, the opposite happened.

“Stewart-Haas Racing has always taken pride in its ability to be nimble and efficient,” he said. “Our peers in the sport that also field four-car teams, have at least 50 percent more employees. The NextGen initiative has provided us with an opportunity to leverage our efficiencies and our previous practices of cross-training. There has been a minimal shrinkage of human capital; yet there has certainly been a redeployment of responsibilities.”

Briscoe said beyond his car chief coming off the road, something that was planned prior to the Covid shutdown, he really hasn’t seen much change within his team.

“It’s a struggle to find people to a certain extent, but at the same time, I know for us, at least we’re trying to, to keep as many people as we can; just retrain ’em to do different things within the shop,” Briscoe said. “And, you know, it’s, it’s obviously been a huge overtaking of trying to change the environment of the shop just with the Next Gen car and trying to figure out how it operates. We’re still only a couple months into this deal and trying to figure out how it works and what’s the best way to get these cars prepared and, and at the racetracks.

“For us, at least for me, at least from my perspective of it, I haven’t seen a ton of change. I still feel like it’s relatively the same race shop and I see the same guys every time I’m there. But you know, there’s some teams that are in tougher situations from a people standpoint, trying to find people is obviously hard right now.”

While the adaptation for the teams has resulted in minimal downsizing of the workforce there are openings at SHR and other teams.

“We have a number of current openings from a graphic artist to a parts department associate to a design engineer and more,” Frood said. “Candidly, we’re always looking for smart, energetic personnel who not only want to grow individually, but who will be passionate in our collective team goals.”

For someone who wants to get into NASCAR, perhaps the biggest first step would be relocating to the Charlotte, North Carolina area where most of the NASCAR teams are located.

“If you go down there right now, you can probably find something to do at an entry level,” Briscoe said. “Kind of build your way up and work your way up.”

The key is having some racing experience. The kind that could be gained by volunteering at a local track.

“it’s going to be hard, I think, to move to Charlotte with no racing experience and a mechanical knowledge and get a job,” Briscoe said. “But I mean, if you have experience, I think right now, for sure, it is hard to find people, so we’re always looking.”

Those wondering about entering the NASCAR industry need to keep in mind that while there are open positions, working in the sport still requires a great deal of dedication, long hours, and a willingness to meet a schedule with racing nearly every weekend from February to November. But teams need skilled people, and if someone is ready to jump in it may be true that there’s never been a better time to get into NASCAR than now.