For Brian Vickers, tomorrow’s NASCAR race at the Bristol Motor Speedway is his 100th Sprint Cup start in a Red Bull Toyota, but for his spotter, Chris Lambert, it’s the toughest weekend of the season.
The cars lap at around 15 seconds on the 0.533-mile oval which means Vickers must rely on his instincts in Tennessee because things usually happen too fast for his spotter to help him. And that leaves Lambert a frustrated man.
“I hate Bristol because you feel like you are handcuffed. By the time you get the words out of your mouth, your driver is already in the wreck,” he said.
“Bristol is really fast, things are so tight there and they run so close together, you feel helpless. I leave there every year feeling like I haven’t helped him and that’s a feeling I don’t want.”
Sprint Cup cars have only one small rear-view mirror and no side mirrors. Combine that with the new larger safety seat that limits head movement and a spoiler or wing on the back, and blind spots are the norm for drivers. The solution is a spotter, who is usually perched atop a grandstand to get a bird’s eye view of the track and whose advice keep the driver safe.
It’s not glamorous, and most fans have little sense of the importance of a good spotter, but simply put, Vickers’s life is often in Lambert’s hands and one lapse could spell disaster.
Luckily, his record is clean, apart for an incident in Daytona last year when Vickers moved up the track after getting a “clear” from Lambert who misjudged the closing speed of another driver. BV moved into the path of Kevin Harvick, clipped him and put him in the wall.
“It’s all about angles and a lot of the places you aren’t high enough to get a good angle, so he may look like he’s clear but he’s still in there by a few inches, which can make all the difference,” he said.
'From the time they drop the green flag to the time it is over, we are constantly watching the track, seeing what the drivers are doing' – Chris Lambert
While NASCAR stresses that a spotter’s role is all about racing safely, Lambert knows that his job is about more than keeping his driver out of trouble.
“In the earlier years of spotting, you just told the driver there was a crash in front of them and made sure they got through it,” he said. “Now, if you don’t bring a competitive advantage, you won’t have a job.
“From the time they drop the green flag to the time it is over, we are constantly watching the track, seeing what different drivers are doing, what lines are working. Because what’s working for another driver will work for us.
“Even during pitstops we watch the other guys to see who takes two tyres and who takes four and who takes fuel only to relay that information to the crew chief.”
Lambert started spotting about 14 years ago when the dirt track team he worked with needed someone to fill in for a race. He did such a great job that the team kept him. A move to a truck series came in 2006 and then he got a chance at the big time a year later.
“In late 2007, Brian’s spotter was David Green, an ex-driver and he got a ride in Craftsman Trucks. The team gave four spotters three races to try-out and luckily I ended up getting it,” he said.
“Getting into the Top-3 series — Trucks, Nationwide and Sprint Cup — is really hard. There are only 43 spotters at each weekend and most are either friends or family of the drivers. It’s about finding a driver who is comfortable with the way you do things.”
Off the track, Lambert wears many hats during a race weekend, whether it’s being a cheerleader when Vickers needs to be pumped up, a punching bag when his driver needs to vent, or an encyclopaedia of knowledge from previous visits to a particular track.
'After a race I am drained. It takes me several hours to wind down' – Chris Lambert
When chaos erupts on the track, Lambert’s experience helps him make decisions in milliseconds to keep Vickers out of trouble. For example, in Atlanta two weeks ago, when Vickers avoided a late crash by running high along the wall rather than following most of the other cars down to the apron, that move was Lambert’s call.
“Lots of times when a car spins like that on a high speed track like Atlanta, they are going to up the track and then they come down once gravity takes hold,” he said. “We were running the high line next to the wall already, so when Jamie [McMurray] spun, there was lots of smoke and Brian couldn’t see anything, and my initial reaction was ‘check up.’
“But then I saw [McMurray] wasn’t going back up the racetrack because he had his foot on the gas to try to keep it off the wall. So I said: ‘Come on, dig, dig, dig,’ which means ‘you’re clear where you are at and come on through’ and Brian hammered the gas.”
Just as Vickers floored it, McMurray clipped Mark Martin’s car and bounced back up the track, missing the No 83 Red Bull Toyota by inches.
And while his job is not physically demanding, 500 miles and a few hours of spotting still takes its toll.
“The guys at the shop like to tell me that I don’t know what hard work is,” says Lambert. “But after a race I am drained. It takes me several hours to wind down.”
For more action, visit NASCAR.com, go to the home of Red Bull Racing Team. Follow Brian Vickers and Scott Speed on Twitter
Getty Images for Red Bull
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