The Rookie And The Champ

Fourth In A Series
With summer coming into full swing in the Carolinas, Rock Harris has been hotter than the summer sun at Friendship Motor Speedway. When the track took a break from its weekly Late Model races on June 15 to run an ASA Southern Modified show, it was the perfect time for Harris to take his family on a little vacation, a weekend camping trip. The break was not only welcomed by Harris, but also by his competitors at Friendship. Harris has been on a tear since the opening weekend, taking six of the first seven features.

On the weekend before the break in Late Model action, I arrived at the track shortly after the competitors' gates opened to find Harris' hauler already in its assigned space. A couple of crew members were there, but no Rock. I asked one of the crew guys where I could find Rock. "Where he always is this time on Friday, over at the tire shed," was the reply.

I went to the shed and, sure enough, there was Harris squatting in the dirt with a two-wheel tire carrier, holding one tire on one side of him with stacks of tires filling the rest of the space around him. We have already discussed the importance that Harris places on his tires, but this is where the process actually starts. Harris visits the tire shed every race night and examines all of the tires, looking for specific serial numbers on the tires. Years of experience have shown him which numbers work best.

"There are certain serial numbers on these Hoosiers that I like," he says. "They seem to act the same under whatever tire pressure I put in them and they grow at about the same rate, so I want the same numbers on each tire so that they match and all do the same thing."

He pulled out six or eight tires with the numbers he sought. And no, he won't reveal those numbers. Next, he checked the air pressure and measured the tires. Every tire pressure and measurement was written down in a notebook that's always at his side. Harris changed the air pressure on the tires, remeasured each one, and slowly made his choices for the night.

"This notebook is vital to my success," Harris says. "I have every tire and every change for every race that I have run here. When I come in after practice and qualifying, we check pressures and measurements. It goes into the book. The same after races. It's why I'm where I am today on the track."

That's not the only trick that Harris regularly uses to get an edge on his competition. As a past champion, he gets a permanent spot to park his hauler alongside pit road. On the spot where the car is parked is a small square marked off with blue tape. Every time the car comes out of the hauler or off the racetrack, the crew positions the car so that it's parked with the left-front tire within the box.

"It's just one more way to keep things consistent," Harris explains. "It's just a matter of eliminating another variable. The ground here isn't exactly flat, so we put the car in the same spot. That way, every time we take a measurement on the car at the track, we are doing it from the same plane."

The procedure seems so simple that it's surprising that more people don't do it. He laughs and says, "It's just common sense to me. A lot of times, some of the other teams don't pay attention to the obvious. Jessie is the only one who has asked me about it, and if you go next door, you'll see that they are doing it now, too."

Paying Attention
The "Jessie" that Harris is referring to is 18-year-old Jessie Johnson, the youngest brother of Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR Nextel Cup champion. Jessie is running his first full season in a Late Model, and Harris has taken him under his wing, trying to help his development as a driver.

"He's a good kid," Harris says. "He's bright and not afraid to ask questions. I guess he reminds me a little of myself when I was starting. Before I started driving over at Motor Mile Speedway [in Radford, Virginia], I would go over there, buy a pit pass, and watch things. I'd find out who the fastest guys were and who the champions were, then I would stand at different places around the track and see how those guys were driving the track. Then, I would go around to their pits and watch the different things that each driver and team were doing to prepare for the race. I did this for several weeks. They all had routines that they followed, and they weren't all the same.

"So, after watching all of these teams, I picked things from each team and blended them into my operation and used them to set up my own routine when I did come to the track to race. Jessie watched me and then started to ask me little things about the track, like how I drive it and why, and why I do certain things before the race. More importantly, he asked the questions and listened.

"So he started trying out some of the things that we talked about, and it seems to have helped him. In practice and in the test sessions, I have Jessie follow me around the track. At first, I wasn't at my top speed. But as we made more laps, I picked the pace up and Jessie was able to keep pace for a while. That's how you learn, by asking questions and following the guys who are faster than you. I respect that. Some people will ask you for your advice, then just blow off everything that you told them. I'm not going to waste my time on people like that. I don't have time for people who won't listen."