Eddie Sharp - Sharp Focus

Eddie Sharp Racing also has a joint effort with another organization. Last year, Sharp blended his team with Cunningham Motorsports and became the team manager for Cunningham, which is owned by Kerry Scherer and Briggs S. Cunningham III, the son of the famed racer and team owner from the '50s and '60s. Together they ran a six-race deal for Dodge in its driver development program. This season, the Cunningham Motorsports Dodge is again part of the Dodge Driver Development Program with drivers Scott Lagasse, Chase Miller, Josh Wise, and Kevin Swindell.

The Dodge Driver Development Program is the wave of the future. Each year, Dodge officials decide which drivers they would like to see in actual racing environments.

Chase Miller took the initiative to gain entry into the program.

"It started at Gateway last year, when I got a ride in the Bobby Jones Racing Dodge," says Chase. "I only had eight laps of practice in the car before qualifying. We started 15th, and I just kept picking cars off until I got into the lead. I led a total of eight laps and was running Fifth with a few laps to go when I tried to pass the Fourth-Place guy. He got into me and wrecked us both. I got a lot of attention in that race, so I started calling Dodge about this program. I kept calling, and in December they called me back and offered me a spot here."

Dodge Motorsports also picks the venue for each driver. Sharp Racing's first job in the program is to prepare the cars so that each driver has a race car capable of running up front on any given weekend. The goal is to give the driver the best possible opportunity to showcase his talents. Sharp then turns the drivers over to the crew chief, who tunes the setups on the cars according to input from each driver, calls the races from the top of the pit box, and coaches the drivers on and off the track.

Eddie says that he keeps a pretty low profile at this point. "I try to stay out of the way," he says. "I don't want to interfere in the relationship between the driver and the crew chief. The only time I step in is to settle any differences that might pop up."

Perhaps the most important part of Eddie Sharp's job occurs after the teams are back in the shop. That is when he has to prepare a report on the driver for Dodge Motorsports.

"When I started looking for criteria to judge the performances of all of the drivers, I looked for things that were important to me as a car owner-but I wanted them to be fair to all of the drivers," Eddie says. "Performance on the track is important, of course, but that is pretty much black and white. You can see the results on paper. It was the intangible things that I wanted to look at, so I came up with a five-item list. Their mannerisms, how they react to problems, work with the media, and so on, [including] their appreciation of the opportunity they have, how they act toward the crew, [and] how often they visit the shop. Because if they aren't interested in how the cars are put together and what the crew does, it'll be hard to get the crew to stand up for the driver. I look at their actions off of the track because that's very important today.

"Finally, I look at their communication skills, both within the team and with the public and the media. It's a media-driven sport these days, and if the driver can't put on a good appearance with the press, a sponsor is not going to be interested."

Sharp Racing will go into next season with several unknowns.

"I don't know what the lineup will be for next year," Eddie says. "Dodge may decide to keep one or two, or even all of the guys here next season, or I might just as easily have an entirely new group of guys to work with. That's all up to the folks at Dodge."

Sharp Racing has already visited Victory Lane with one of its young drivers. Miller won the first ARCA race at Pocono and could easily have found himself there again as he dominated the second Pocono race, only to drop a cylinder with less than 10 laps to go.

Most race teams would love to have a young driver on the team who is already a proven winner so they can build around him, but Eddie Sharp knows that is not his role.

"My job is to bring the guys in, teach them as much as I can, and then move them on up the ladder," Eddie says. "I love my job."