The document discusses a student's research into the discourse community of racing mechanics. The student conducted observation and interviews to learn about how people become racing mechanics, their job responsibilities, and how they interact and perform their work. Key resources included an interview with a NASCAR head engineer and a YouTube video tour of a NASCAR garage during a race weekend, which provided visuals of mechanics working on cars without being on camera.

1. Jacob Eichholtz
Rebecca Agosta
UWRT 1103
19 November 2014
Racing to the Top
“As an engineer, I’m constantly spotting problems and plotting how to solve them”
(James Dyson). For my genre piece, I have decided to study the discourse community of racing
mechanics, because I hope to become a racing mechanic one day. Racing engineers and racing
mechanics are the unsung heroes of the sport, and while the drivers get all the attention, the
mechanics and engineers are the ones who are putting hours upon hours in to find the best
possible set-up for a car so that the driver can go out and look good on the track. They play a
huge role in the sport, and are probably even more important than the driver. Without a good
team around, no driver can be successful in racing. I did different kinds of research, including
observation, to determine what being a racing mechanic entails and how people get involved in
the community. Each resource brought me to a different conclusion about how racing mechanics
get jobs, interact with each other, and excel in their jobs.
Methods
First, I gathered several different sources that were important to my research. I would say
that the two most important resources I gathered was an interview with Alba Colon, the head
engineer for Chevrolet’s NASCAR program, that was posted on CNN recently. The second key
resource was a 20-minute video of a NASCAR garage tour that was given by Motor Racing
Network’s Steve Post during the race weekend for the 2012 race at the Homestead-Miami
Speedway. This was not an official video, but rather the tour was given and filmed in its entirety

2. by a fan who later uploaded it to YouTube. From the tour video, I was able to gather lots of
information to help me understand the way mechanics work without showing off for the
cameras.
First, the tour entered the garage area, and we could see the cars lined up in their
respective garage stalls getting ready for a practice session, and the crews were hard at work to
prepare these cars to the best possible set-up as instructed by the crew chief. The tour walked
down the length of the garage building, and it was possible to see mechanics underneath the car,
under the hood, in the action of talking with each other, and going to different places around the
infield to retrieve important parts. All the while, Steve Post was narrating the tour, although the
tour itself was geared toward people who were probably new to racing and trying to understand
the basics, it was still helpful to get some explanation to go along with the visuals all around.
First, mechanics were often seen at various places around the infield. This is because there are a
lot of different important places that are needed to get the right equipment. Some mechanics go
to the Goodyear hauler to pick up the tires they need. Some go to the Sunoco station to fill up the
gas cans that will be used later. Others go back into the team hauler to get spare tools and things
like that.
Analysis
These resources show that