Harris had been racing and winning championships at area tracks for about 10 years when he went to work for team owner Travis Carter on a full-time basis in 1998. Harris is the defending Late Model champion at Tri-County Speedway in Hudson, North Carolina, and also races at other tracks when time permits.
"The mechanics of a Winston Cup car are very similar to what I do with my Late Model racing," says Harris, a general mechanic for Carter's BelCar Racing. "When you really sit down and think about it, there really is a great deal of similarities. This is my opinion-and I'm not a Winston Cup crewchief-but most of the advancements in Winston Cup the last few years have been through aerodynamics as opposed to mechanical. If you take a look at the chassis now, it's the same chassis Banjo Matthews was making 30 years ago."
Jeff Meendering, the setup specialist on Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports, is a Michigan native who grew up across from famed Berlin Raceway. He got his start at Hendrick after NASCAR's Gary Nelson, a friend of Meendering's, spoke to Eddie Dickerson in the Hendrick shop. Meendering is a full-time competitor in the Late Model Stock ranks at Concord (NC) Motorsport Park, just minutes from where Meendering works.
Meendering's relationship with his Hendrick teammates is a prime example of one of the obvious advantages for a short-track racer who works on a Winston Cup team.
"One of the things that has helped me out is being able to go to some of the best engineers in racing like Rex Stump, plus some great crewchiefs like Chad Knaus and Robbie Loomis," Meendering says. "I've always been able to ask them any kind of question I've got about my race car. They've got so many years of experience and so much knowledge they can always come up with some kind of answer to help me out. I definitely ask as many questions as I can and try to ask the right people the right questions.
"Rex has been able to help me out a lot as far as the geometry, and Chad and Robbie have helped me out a lot as far as my setups. All those guys have so much experience in so many different types of racing, they can always lead me in the right direction."
Knaus admits that while his main focus is centered on his Winston Cup program, he's more than happy to lend advice to help Meendering's racing hobby.
"I love being able to help Jeff out because he is such a great guy," Knaus says. "He is a great driver with great equipment who does a good job out on the track. If I can help anybody, I'm more than happy to lend advice. I was fortunate when I was younger to have some really good people in racing I could confide in and talk to, so if I can repay that favor to someone else, then that's great."
In fact, Knaus says that some of the things Meendering learns with his Late Model program can actually be applied to Winston Cup cars.