randy pemberton · @randypsprintcup
15th Nov 2014 from TwitLonger
Ryan Pemberton has made every team and driver he's worked with better
When the checkered flag falls on the Nationwide race at Miami Homested on Saturday afternoon, long time crew chief and director of competition for JR. MotorSports and my brother Ryan Pemberton will step down off the box, potentially for the final time... Ryan has called the shots for many drivers over his 19 year career in both the Sprint Cup and the Nationwide series... The stats will show he's he's been on the box for 631 ccareer races for 26 different drivers...
Ryan has never won Sprint Cup or Nationwide title as a crew chief and he doesn't have the hall of fame numbers of some of the greats such as Dale Inman, Chad Knaus or Ray Evernham but I contend there are other ways to measure a man's accomplishments in what can be the most difficult of coaching positions in all of sports... And while each crew chief travels his own path, often times your circumstances can play a significant role in ones final numbers... There are many other ways to measures the success of a crew chief that include dedication, determination, perseverance and sacrifice... And while most anyone put in the position of crew chief in NASCAR, demonstrates those qualities, nobody has done more under adverse circumstances than Ryan has over the past two decades...
Ryan's career began as a teenager back in 1988 as he started at the bottom of the newly formed Roush Racing with driver Mark Martin... It was at Roush that he would learn the ropes from both Steve Hmiel and his older brother Robin Pemberton... It didn't take long before Ryan found his footing and began contributing at a high level... Passing up on his persuit of a mechanical engineering degree, it was easy to see he was pickng up on the mechanical workings of a stock car's fast... It wasn't long before Ryan was doing everything and anything needed by the team... Before the terminology and position of "car chief" became common place in the sport, Ryan was exactly that guy...
Things were continuing to progress at Roush in those early years... Wins and a near championship in 89 and then suddenly a reality check... It was during the 1990, July, Daytona race, when Ryan was going over the wall as a tire carrier and chassis guy, when on a pit stop, he lost the Handle of a wedge wrench, it got left in the car, causing them to have to come back to pit road... Ryan was fired after the race... it would be the first of many career lessons and trying times in his career...
Fortunately, Ryan's work ethic in the garage didn't go in nototiced... Larry Mc Reynolds the then crew chief for Davey Allison quickly put Ryan back to work at Robert Yates Racing... Ryan resumed his position as a car chief and spent the better part of the next 5 seasons working and honing his skills under Larry Mac... In 1992 Davey won 5 races and they came within a race of winning the title after a crash on the front stretch at Atlanta took them out... While the near miss was hard to swallow for Ryan, Larry and the team, surely there would be more opportunities to win championships with Davey behind the wheel...
1993 rolled in and Robert Yates Racing was one of the real favorites for the title... after 16 races into the fight for the championship, the unthinkable happened... Davey was flying his new helicopter and crashed it as he attempting to land in the infield at Talladega Superspeedway... The accident came the day after the race at Loudon NH... Davey's death was a tragedy that the team, the sport and Ryan took very hard, as one could imagine...
Ernie Irvan won two races in nine starts filling in for the team, the remainder of the year... Irvan's results were enough to get the nod for 1994... Athough the team was still dealing with the loss of a friend and a great driver in Allison, Ernie was doing a great job as the season rolled through mid-way. They headed into Michigan Having already won 3 races, 5 poles and were second in the points, things were going great...
During practice for the race, the team was suddenly faced with another nightmare. Ernie Irvan crashed hard. He left the track in a life flight chopper and was givin only a 10% chance of survival... While laying near death for weeks, Larry, Ryan and team were forced to trudge on... Erinie's accident along with Davey's death the prior season was beginning to take is toll on the potent but small organization...
For Ryan, not yet 25, it was especially hard... Already he had been forced to deal with the death of his friend Rob Moroso, Davey and now another serious wreck with Ernie and all of this before he had even gotten his first job as a crew chief in the sport...
That breakoff becoming a crew chief would come in 1995, when two time Nationwide series champion Larry Pearson was looking for a fresh perspective to help him persuit another title, Ryan was the guy... He would take his enthusiasm and experience to Mac Martin Racing where he soon picked up his very first win... The team made a title run with Pearson in 1996 only to come up just short...
It was 1997 when Ryan would take control of a cup team for the first time at 28 years old, with all the potential in the world to win and compete for wins and championships... After a year with driver Derrick Cope behind the wheel, in 1998, MB2 Motorsports tabbed Ernie Irvan to drive as he was trying to make a come back after his series accident a couple years earlier... Ernie still had the natural ability that he showed early in his career and thier little team continued to make progress...
MB2, Ernie and Ryan were running well and getting better during 1999 and then, as if it just wasn't supposed to happen, Ernie crashed bad in NW practice, at Michigan... While Ernie was again clinging to life, Ryan was forced to find drivers to keep the team going.. What appeared to be a team with a lot potential and maybe even enough for an eventual title run, was now gone... Ernie never raced in the Cup series again and Ryan was left to figure out what was next for he and his team...
After a three year stint with Jasper Motorsports, which included drivers such as Robert Pressley and Dave Blaney... Ryan reunighted with MB2 MotorSports in 2003 this time with young jerry Nadeau behind the wheel... Just 10 races into the season and with the team making progress, they unloaded at Richmond and they were fast... Jerry was getting more comfortable and was starting to give him what he wanted to go fast.... Then it happened.... Jerry Nadeau crashed hard in turns one and two... Once again one of Ryan's friends and a future star driver was barely clinging to life.... It was almost to much to bare but Ryan and the team had no choice but to continue on under the most adverse of circumstances... It took no less than six drivers to fill out the remainder of the schedule that year... Another year of potential that turned into the utmost of difficult times... Jerry Nadeau would never race again...
2004-2006 would bring some stability at MB2... With Joe Nemechek behind the wheel they had some strong runs including a victory at Michigan... Eventually a new owner named Bobby Ginn emerged in the sport as he bought and took control of the team... Finally some much n financial stability that would help bring the team to the next level...
2007 brought future hall of fame driver, Mark Martin into the fold... That gave the entire organization a great deal of optimism for the future... They had a strong run right out of the gate as Mark took the #01 Army car to within three feet of winning the series opening Daytona 500... the loss of the 500 was a big disappointment for Ryan as it was for Mark and the whole team... But now things were feeling as if they just might become a potential threat for the 2007 championship... They quickly racked up, Two fifths place runs, a fourth and a sixth and the Army car and driver Mark Martin were on top of the points standings heading into race number five at Bristol... bu there was a problem... It had been discussed that Mark was only wanting to run a partial schedule that year and despite being on top of the heap, they could not convince Mark to reconsider his partial schedule...
The team struggled with rookie drivers Eric Almirola and Regan Smith but ran well with Mark in his limited starts... As bad as it was, having to give up the points lead as Mark left full time racing, It got worse by the end of the year, much worse... Bobby Ginn was out of money and the team wasn't getting its bills paid... It was so bad over the final weeks of 2007 that Ryan, as well as Team manager Jay Frye, actually had to put parts and pieces for the car on their own personal credit cards... You can not get much more dedicated that... They tried to keep the doors open and people employed, it wouldn't work and the team got absorbed by Dale Earnhardt Inc... It was the beginning of the and of a team that had so much promise...
Fast forward to 2009, Ryan is now at Red Bull Racing with driver Brian Vickers and everything was in place.. Money, personnel and they were getting better quickly... They Won Michigan and put together a ten race stretch run leading up to the Chase, that as good as any in the field... In fact Ryan out pointed everyone during that nine race stretch... As for the team themselves they were good... They were so resourceful that after breaking an axel at Atlanta two races before the Chase cutoff, they did the amazing... They were able to change out the axel on pit road under caution without ever losing a lap... The clutch move ultimately put them in the Chase two weeks later... I have not seen a team do that on pit road and not lose a lap since that day...
Ryan has been as loyal as he could be, always trying to bring people with him where ever he worked... He had the right people in the right places at Red Bull... As Underdogs, they made the chase and thier future looked bright... They couldn't maintain the pace through the chase but there was 2010 right around the corner...
in 2010, Red Bull Racing got off to a slow start but they were beginning to click... After a tenth place finish at Darlington they headed to Dover looking to continue thier climb up the standings...
It was Sunday morning before practice when the news broke... Brian Vickers was done for the season do to blood clots in his lungs... It was almost too hard to believe for all concerned but it was what it was and once again the future of the team was up in the air... Ryan did all he could with substitue drivers... Ultimately the team was never the same again and Red Bull Racing folded after the next season...
After working with and for Tommy Baldwin Racing for much of 2012, JR. MotorSports signed him to help them get thier organization to the next level... as thier Director of Competition, the goal was to build the relationship with Hendrick Motorsport and thier technology... 2013-14 have been terrific seasons for JR Motorsports and for Ryan... Chase Elliott has won the title with the team this year and Regan Smith has been right on his heals all season...
On Saturday after the race , It appears that Ryan will turn the crew chief duties for Regan Smith over to aother man for the 2015 season and will once again concentrate on the entire organizations car's and competition...
Although Ryan may never call another race as a crew chief in NASCAR he will continue to do what he's been doing since he began in the sport some 26 years ago... The single biggest thing that Ryan has contributed to the sport is that he made every team and driver that he worked with better than they were before and sometimes that's all you can do...
Ryan Pemberton has traveled his own path...
He's been an innovator... A strategizer... A motivator and a leader...
Always leading by example, Ryan has always given the sport and his team's all that he's had and did everything circumstances would allow...
Most of all, Ryan Pemberton has always persevered...
Well done brother!