The Scoop
CHRIS YERGES – GREEN BAY’S CONNECTION TO DAYTONA 500 WINNER MICHAEL MCDOWELL
Posted on: Thursday February 18, 2021
Green Bay native Chris Yerges is the lead race engineer for Front Row Motorsports. He poses with the championship hardware from Michael McDowell’s Daytona 500 win. (Front Row Motorsports Photo)
When perennial underdog Michael McDowell pulled off the upset win at the Daytona 500 on Valentine’s Day Green Bay native Chris Yerges was smiling from ear-to-ear.
The 2003 Notre Dame Academy graduate had plenty of reasons to smile. Yerges, who’s worked full time in the NASCAR motorsports industry for 12 years is the Lead Race Engineer on McDowell’s Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores number 34. “The win for us is especially satisfying when you consider we operate at a budget that is about one-third of what most of the bigger teams we compete against have at their disposal,” Yerges explained. “That victory helps us out as a team in so many different ways.”
The former NDA Triton (class of 2003) cut his teeth in the stock car racing biz not behind the wheel but instead working in the popcorn stand at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek in 1998 while still a young teenager. “Later on, I got involved in racing mini stocks on the pavement and later on would go on to help other Green Bay drivers Ryan Manthei and Brett Piontek for a while,” Yerges explained.
Yerges attended University of Wisconsin Platteville and after three and a half years packed his bags, moved down to the Charlotte, North Carolina area and never looked back. “My first gig was as an intern for Robby Gordon Motorsports,” Yerges recalled. From that time until 2021 Yerges has worked with many of the biggest names in NASCAR’s big leagues, including Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin.
“Michael McDowell is a class act top-to-bottom to work with,” Yerges explained. “He’s constantly sorting through data and setups we provide and is always striving to make himself a better race car driver. He’s great at taking constructive criticism and providing the team solid feedback on what needs to be done with the car. He’s paid his dues in this sport, no doubt. He’s a family man and a sincerely humble guy. Same as you saw on television. It’s real.”
McDowell’s win helped the lower-budget Front Row Motorsports team in several different ways. “For one thing it basically locked us into 16th in points which is huge,” Yerges explained. “We want try and gain a spot or two for the playoffs. It’s a banner start for our program right off the bat. When those ebbs and flows of the racing season happen and you have some of those down weekends we can look back and think ‘We won the Daytona 500’ and that can help. It can help wash away some of the frustrations we deal with from week-to-week.”
What’s more, the Daytona race winnings means that team owner Bob Jenkins won’t have to reach into his own pocketbook to keep the team afloat. “(Bob) had to do that a couple of times last year,” Yerges said. “He had to pump a couple of million dollars into it to keep it running. This race bumps us up a little bit for the future. We’re in the Clash race now for life. You get a bump in pay the higher you are in points, too. All of those little things add up to keep a small NASCAR cup team like ours afloat for the season.”
Yerges’ roles as the lead race engineer include setup work during the week. “I’ll review our notes through past history at certain tracks and implement the best setup I can for each race weekend,” Yerges said. “I relay all of the data to the car chief and the mechanics. We’re constantly looking for ways to add speed to the car.”
On race day Yerges is in charge of developing fuel strategies. “That’s really important these days without practice or qualifying,” Yerges pointed out. “We reach out and share information with our technical partners at Rousch Racing too.”
NASCAR like other big-league sports had to change things up with their respective business plans due to the Covid-19 pandemic. What would normally be three day shows with practice and qualifying have been shortened to two day or in some cases even day events. With the brutal schedule many teams had gotten used to with 70 to 80 hour work weeks and a constant diet of airports and hotels, the Covid “break” if you want to call it that was sort of welcomed in the NASCAR world.
“With Covid there have been some blessings in the sky within our industry and one of them is less travel,” Yerges said. “It’s made the home life a little bit easier. I’m actually working races from the shop now where most of last year I didn’t. Normally all of that travel can be a huge sacrifice. It’s a grind.”
According to Yerges, that lack of practice and qualifying has made in some cases for better racing. “That lack of practice makes the shows a little better sometimes,” Yerges confessed. “Some teams with less resources can sometimes hit the setup and run better than the well-funded teams with unlimited resources. It’s sort of leveled the playing field a bit and I feel we’re seeing more passing a better show for the fans.”
In his ‘spare time’ Yerges earned his masters through an online learning program through UW-Platteville, earning a masters of science and engineering degree. “It’s sort of an engineering version of an MBA,” Yerges explained.
How long does Yerges see himself working full time in the grind of NASCAR Cup racing? “I’d eventually love to be a crew chief someday,” Yerges admitted. “But the landscape will change a bit starting in 2022. All the teams will have to buy their cars from NASCAR. They’ll all have the same chassis and suspension. It shouldn’t stop anyone from chasing their dreams though if they want to break into this business. Ultimately it comes down to hard work and persistence.”
Yerges admits he’s not overly superstitious. Although in light if the Daytona 500 win February 14th some odd occurrences took place. “My number on my mini stock during my racing days was 18 and McDowell’s win was my 18th as a NASCAR team member,” Yerges said. “That day one of our team members filled up his gas tank. The total came to 34 dollars – same as the car number!”
And perhaps the most obvious of all was to have the “Love’s” sponsored car win on Valentine’s Day.