Baby Emma puts life in perspective for DEI fabricator
Nothing like a life-changing event to put things in perspective. Eric Wakeland, a fabricator at DEI, certainly sees life differently after his daughter was born almost two months premature.
This business is wonderful. And very stressful. Sometimes it's cruel, for various reasons. Those of us blessed enough to be enveloped in it must live it daily. "Off" rarely applies. Our families must sacrifice. They must live it, too. It is a commitment by all.
There are times it is consuming. Often. At those times God invariably offers perspective, and I'm grateful for it.
This week, perspective came in the form of a conversation with Eric Wakeland, an 11-year veteran of the Cup Series' pit road. Currently, he is a fabricator for Dale Earnhardt Inc., and the rear-tire carrier for the red No. 8. Helluva guy.
with Marty Smith |
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Wakeland's daughter, Emma, was born June 13. She was due Aug. 6.
Seven weeks premature, Emma weighed less than 4 pounds.
In the week since, she has been in an incubator. She is in intensive care. The neonatal intensive care unit, they call it. My son, Cambron, was born a month premature. I recall NICU well. It was at once the scariest and sweetest place I've ever been.
Eric's wife, Crystal, drives the 60-plus miles round-trip to Charlotte Medical Center each day to be by Emma's side. Emma is a fighter. Eric says she's progressing very well.
She doesn't require breathing assistance and is gaining weight well. Eric says the hospital is impressed with her improvement. He works all day in the shop, then heads to the hospital to join his wife in support and adoration of their daughter.
That is his sole motivation at present -- being there for his wife and daughter.
Therefore, he won't make it out to Sonoma this weekend. For just the second time in his career, he'll miss a race in which his team competes. The other, he recalls, was in 2003, when he was a member of Bill Elliott's Evernham Motorsports pit crew and missed an event due to ankle surgery.
"I'm not going [to Sonoma] just for the simple fact that it's a little bit too far with [Emma] being in the hospital," Eric said. "And [given the lack of] pit stops done out there, I'd rather stay here in the Carolinas just to be safe."
Suddenly racing isn't the end-all, be-all.
He'd already been leaning that way emotionally. Now he is certain.
"It's changed me tremendously," Wakeland said of fatherhood. "My overall outlook on life has changed. As far as racing goes, even before [Emma], I was to the point of maybe having a life back, and having weekends to spend with my wife. We've only been married for two years.
"And now that my daughter's come along, racing is on the back burner. It's not as important. I just want to spend as much time as I can with [Emma].
"You hear a lot of these guys on pit road talking about their little boy or daughters at a game, and mom's calling them and telling how [their children] did. I don't want to be one of those guys. I want to be there watching."
Eric says doctors are contemplating removing Emma from the incubator and placing her in a crib.
That's a great sign.
Eric started a sweeping business. His company sweeps residential and commercial parking lots in the evenings.
"I'm trying to get that up off the ground and eventually get out of the racing world," Eric said. "I want to be one of those guys that's spending every weekend with [Emma] instead of communicating with her on the phone on Sundays."
He's by her side now, and intends to be later.
Perspective, indeed.
• Congratulations to Jeff Gordon and his wife, Ingrid, on the birth of their daughter, Ella Sofia.
You hear it all the time, but there's no greater bliss than a child's laughter. It is true. All those trophies are priceless to Gordon, and rightfully so. But when that little girl smiles at him, or a year from now says "Daddy" for the first time, they won't carry quite the same zeal.
• Kudos: To Jarit Johnson, younger brother to Nextel Cup champion Jimmie, whose five consecutive late-model victories at Hickory Motor Speedway pushed him into the series points lead there.
Marty,
Everyone wrote and said DEI would crumble without Dale Jr. I'm a Martin Truex Jr. fan so that worried me a lot. It seems like they're doing better now that Junior announced he is going to Hendrick's. What do you think is the reason?
-- Sammie (I'm a girl!), Kentucky
To say Dale Earnhardt Inc. is impressive wouldn't be fair, Sammie. Impressive isn't a strong enough description. The doom and gloom most folks -- me included -- predicted simply hasn't materialized.
Martin Truex Jr. is suddenly a star, curator of the "museum." His confidence is palpable. Perception has done an about-face in the garage. And there could be no better time to excel than the present for DEI. They're in the market to land a marquee driver, and one key variable in that quest is that ability to keep good people.
This is a people sport. Big-time drivers want to know they have big-time support. Crew chief. Pit crew. Shop guys.
For them to continue to perform -- improve, in fact -- through such a tumultuous period is impressive indeed.
• Another quick DEI note: One development at Michigan that somehow flew under the radar was Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s re-emergence in the top 12 in points. On the strength of two top-10s in the past four events, including a fifth-place run at Michigan, he has rallied to recoup the 100-point penalty levied by NASCAR for the No. 8 team's installation of illegal rear wing brackets on the COT at Darlington.
Marty,
Is Dale Jr. going to get to keep the No. 8? What's the deal on that!
-- Kristen Abraham, Rock Hill, S.C.
Not sure just yet, Kristen. Max Siegel, president of Dale Earnhardt Inc., told me Wednesday that he has yet to receive a formal proposal from Hendrick Motorsports. That's the next step, he said. Rick Hendrick said last week that he's open to pursuing it.
Marty,
Since so many of the NASCAR engines are built in shops that supply engines to multiple drivers/teams, I've always wondered when they "tag" a specific engine to a specific driver. Case in point, Hendrick builds engines for its four cars, as well as several other teams.
Do they decide whose engine it is on the day they start working on the block? Do they wait until they have a feel for how that particular engine is going? Do they wait until the engine is dyno'd? Thanks!
-- John Mahoney, Detroit
Great question, John. I went to the source for you, man. Jeff Andrews, head engine builder for Hendrick, answered your question like this:
When the HMS engine shop starts building engines for a race, the engines are not designated to a specific team. Andrews said several factors determine which cars get which engines. First of all, Andrews said, engine assemblers are given equal opportunity to engage in each of the nine Cup Series programs to which HMS supplies engines.
Then, from the midpoint of the season on, cars contending for the Chase get the good stuff. Andrews said that as a company rule, per Rick Hendrick himself, all HMS engines must be within 5 horsepower of one another; an outlier instantly becomes a test engine and another race engine is built in its place.
Once the Chase begins, the teams that are qualified get the best equipment. Andrews said it is important to note that "Better does not just mean it makes better power. Mileage on components and a good history are the biggest factors in the Chase."
Marty,
I have been a Martin Truex Jr. fan longer than I have been a NASCAR fan, so nobody is more excited than I am about all of the attention he is getting as of late. My question is this: To what do you attribute the No. 1 team's recent run of success?
He has gone from flirting with the top-10 and top-15 each week (if he was lucky and avoided everybody else's messes), to flirting with the top-5 and the win consistently. Do you think that his first win has just given his team that much momentum?
Or could it be argued that with Dale Jr. as a "lame duck" driver, the top resources at DEI are being handed to the driver who is going to be around next season? On a side note, I am a huge fan of yours and always look forward to your articles. I, for one, appreciate your large vocabulary.
-- Jennifer, Orlando, Fla.
Great question, Jennifer. It's an odd correlation that can't be denied -- once a driver gets that first taste of victory, there's a different air about him. His confidence escalates, becomes infectious to those around him, especially when he's as dominant as Truex was at Dover. The team jells a bit in the wake of the win. Look at Casey Mears, too. Since his victory at Charlotte, he has run up front each week.
Truex said Sunday that he fully expects to make the Chase. And possibly more.
"Right now, I think the sky's the limit for the way things are going," Truex said. "I'm looking forward to it. Who knows, the end of the year comes around and we could be challenging for that championship."
Marty,
What is the name of the song that plays as the beginning of Jimmie Johnson's XM Radio show?
-- Billie Helms, Charlotte, N.C.
"Only God Knows Why." Kid Rock. Download it and listen to the lyrics. Stellar.
Marty,
So you said Clint Bowyer was the best driver without a win. How about Juan Pablo Montoya?
-- Skip, Weekstown, N.J.
Montoya is the real deal, Skip. His competitors are manifestly impressed with his car control and ability. I was asking one driver at Pocono to rate drivers from strictly a talent perspective. He put Montoya among the best.
His competitors say that once he learns to settle in and ride a while, instead of racing every lap as though it's Turn 4 of the last lap of the Daytona 500, he'll be unbelievable.
No doubt he'll be a threat this weekend at Sonoma. He won the only road course race run thus far in 2007 -- the Mexico City Busch affair -- and wasn't a bit afraid to ruffle some feathers to do it.
This weekend will be fun. On that note …
Marty,
Road course races suck. I won't even watch. These are stock cars, not Indy cars. And half the teams bring in other drivers we've never heard of. It's ovals or nothing for me.
-- Freddy Jones, Atlanta
Personally, I like road course racing, Freddy. It's a unique skill that doesn't receive due credit and takes many years to perfect. It's difficult to quantify what it means that Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart have so many road course victories. And I do wish some of the teams would let their full-time drivers compete on road courses. How else might they improve? Fact is, "road course ringers" don't win. Never have.
Marty Smith is a contributor to ESPN's NASCAR coverage. He can be reached at ESPNsider@aol.com.
