David Ifft - Men Behind the Wrenches

throughout his career he has worked with some of NASCAR's greats while the guys that turn wrenches with him were expected to work hard but had a good time today Oh men behind the wrenches we take a look at the outrageous David [Music] mentioned the name at the racetrack and he's sure to bring a huge smile david F's approached the NASCAR race in may be unconventional but has resulted in success hello to welcome the men behind the wrenches I'm your host Jeff Hammond David may be well known in the garage for his comedy routines but behind the fun exterior was a crew chief that was focused on the task at hand winning races David grew up part of a large family near Youngstown Ohio where his dad was an early influence well I used to hand him wrenches when he was working on a car and I was five and six years old he would say give me that half-inch wrench or a 9/16 wrench and I knew what the wrenches were and would hand them to him and that's you know I guess at 5 and 6 years old you knew what wrenches were all about so you kind of growed up in it and and I was a you know I like to do stuff different and when we were when I'd go the dirt track race with him last 16 I wanted a car so I built my own dirt car and everything and I couldn't drive it cuz I didn't I couldn't see good enough to drive it I don't think it I just you know certain things you can do good and certain things you can't do good and and I right then I tried it and I said well the thing for me that's driving so I just worked on him for the men at age 21 David moved his young family to the south looking to accomplish his dream of being a mechanic I stopped a banjo Matthews shop with he was the big car builder then and he said I think I know guy in Spartanburg that's looking for somebody and I went down there and but more hired me in Spartanburg South Carolina those early days at bud Moore engineering were a learning experience for David bud taught me how to how to work efficiency you know fishing it was you he worked we worked 8:00 to 6:00 o'clock and there was very few days I worked after 6 o'clock and it's just if he was painting a car or something you might have stayed for an hour more but he taught you how to you know utilize your time real good and and he you know didn't have big sponsors and that but his car is always running good and he he taught you how to make sure that everything was bolted on right you know prep the cars good and stuff like that once David learned the basics but gave him other opportunities we went to Hickory North Carolina somebody couldn't go and bud more come and ask me if in fact I don't think he knew my name for three years he called me boy come here boy we went to Hickory North Carolina Bobby Isaac was driving the car was one of them grand American races or something Kinkaid dodge was there jr. was there with kale and we we went there and the guy that could change the tire wasn't there and he asked me says can you change that tire boy and I said I can do it I changed it and from then on I he took me on the road with them David was now the fast track of becoming a Winston Cup crew chief David EF learned his trade from one of the Masters but more but he had a family to support and wasn't making ends meet I started for Bud more at 113 dollars a week I think we made three dollars an hour three dollar twenty-five cent an hour and anything over 40 hours was time and a half and the Petty's paid that way and you had the Petty's the Wood Brothers but more engineering and and when you were riding in the truck going to California it was halftime you didn't get the $3.00 because he wasn't working you was riding so you only got a dollar fifty an hour but you wanted to do it that's what you you know it was exciting and you know to see the country and the people that you meet and everything in 1974 let's drive her Bobby Issac abruptly retired and the team needed a driver David had been eyeing a brash young talent Darrell Waltrip David suggested to bud he put Darrell in his car I was riding home with bud in the car and he said man we're in a mess now we got this sponsor and we ain't got no driver and I just happen to rattle off I said want to put that Darryl Waltrip in that car and Darryl Waltrip was just coming along and he only run about 810 races that year and that terminal transport car and but when he run I watched him and bud wasn't watching him he was watching the Wood Brothers and everything but I'd watch the guys in the back run and the new guys coming up during the race and he's in bud looked over he chewed that tobacco you know and spit them to Bagon he says who who's Darrell Waltrip and I didn't say no morning so Tuesday of the following week here comes Darrell in the shop Darrell finished out the last six races for bud and then moved on to die guard racing in 1975 he asked David to join me and Darrell got to be pretty good friends and he kept on me and army says once you come and work for him to be my crew chief down at Rygaard which they were running out of Florida then so I left bud more after four years when and you know it was a hard thing for me to do because I could have been there forever with bud and I left bud and went to with Darrell and I was as crew chief and then Gatorade come along and me and Darrell hired Robert Yates from jr. and things just went from there David and I would just worked really good together what was at a time when I was just getting started we were thigh guards and died guard was in a in a situation where they were down here in Florida and everybody else in North Carolina and David moved down here it was hard to find people to work down here cause everybody won to be in Charlotte but David came down here and he went to work David learned how to be a crew chief along the way surrounded himself with good people when I hired somebody I knew they were good workers and you know like I could name some people to work for me like you know Barry Dotson worked for me buddy parrot worked for me Gary Nelson you know the they were they come in young like we were but they were the money wasn't the issue then it was let's say everybody dug in we didn't have titles then we didn't you know the tide of the joke back then if you had a title that was the next step out the door so you know everybody we didn't have card Chiefs or specialists within things everybody done everything if it took the crew chief out there loading the truck we drove the truck you know and everybody done everything whatever it took to get to the racetrack the iCard team knew how to win and have fun what David was crazy yeah I'm not crazy crazy but just just a lot of fun man we could we could really tell some stories about our days together and but but but you got to realize that again we had a team that had a sponsor we have a driver that could win races and it was just a deal where you know we knew we had one of the best race teams and we only had to beat five guys to only given Sunday if you look at the guys I worked with that got pretty similar personalities kind of fun-loving they take their job seriously but don't take it too seriously there was a time to get serious then there's always time to play and I love to play I mean to me the one of the best parts about our sport is is the time away from the track that you spend with your team and crew your crew chief those times that you spend together going to dinner and talking about racing and then Sunday you go to the track they put your game face on you go out knee and you're and you're competitive and you win David if I found success as a Winston Cup crew chief that died guard David if and darrell waltrip outrageous personalities clicked Darryl made me and I helped make there I took the chance and as his crew chief and he could talk like the man on the 6 o'clock news and that's what the cameras wanted and so Darryl was always no matter where he's running how good was running they were always talking to me about how the cars running and how Baro is and because we had a story for him and and David was smart I mean we won races and we had a good time together he enjoyed I'm sure he liked driving working with me because that's where he got all his underwear and socks take a quick story I used to go in the truck after a race you know you're hot you're sweaty you're dirty and you take uniform off taking underwear off throw them in the closet take socks off throw them in the closet slam a door and leave so you know after a period of time I got to thinking about it I've run out of underwear at home I said what the heck's happening all my underwear and so I go back to the track and you know you get work and you wouldn't think too much about it so one weekend we were tracking hunt just happening I had no underwear I said David you got any idea what happened to all my underwear I said every time I take it off I put it in the closet I got to realizing I when I come back it's not there he pulled his pants down he says this looked like yours he would take that under he'd take my underwear my socks you need shirts t-shirts home Gretchen his wife she had died she had wash them clean them up get the skid marks out of them and that's what he had used the duo's biggest wind was Talladega in 1977 when Darrell beat the old guard in the final lap we were going down toward the end of the race there with about four laps to go or five laps to go and in fact you know buddy parrot was with me Gary Nelson's was there and myself I was the crew chief and Mike come on the radio with about four laps to go and I said Darrell you don't want to be leading this thing the last lap and he knew David shut up I know what I'm doing then no I didn't say no more you know and here he come around him guys got the Dyson back there and they Darrell just pulled a couple car lengths and that's what give him the race and then we went the next week we went into one Richmond then we won Darlington that really give us the boost to to get going you know NASCAR was changing and David services were a hot commodity he decided to take an offer from MC Anderson ahead of his program when I went to work for him in 1978 I think it was 79 I was the first crew chief that really made big money you know I'm you know six figures wait David decided to leave he had to tell their me and Daryl talked it over and he didn't want me to leave and everything and it was kind of a deal we kind of got shafted a little bit with the Gardiners on money on we he was taking our percentages that we were supposed to be win and we had a good deal there and and I told Daryl and even Robert Yates as a motorman and that I told Robert we're going to get shafted here you know and I didn't sign the contract the last year I was there and Bill garner kept on me and on me and you know racing was different back then a lot of these guys got a sponsor and they lived off the sponsorship money and had the nice houses and everything like that and we run that race team on for what we made the sponsorship money never went back in there now and even when Bobby went over there won the championship with Miller Beer and that they always struggled you know and I just got out before it all blowed up now at the helmet MC Henderson racing David found himself team with Buddy Baker me and Buddy are good friends what that's probably what why we were successful we were real good friends I oak his language he spoke my language when he would start getting hyper or I started getting going too fast he would say calm down David you'll get it will be all right and then if he would get going too fast I said just do the best you can ride it out we'll be all right if we had a flat tire so I've got a lap down or I said just hang in there and just keep race to race track and we'll get it back and that's how he helped me I helped him David definitely could make a race car go around the racetrack and when he and I were together at MC understand and we had to enter in program order ability we have a good entry if we had durability belt Makar Luther one adventure racing at the end of the 1978 season but he moved on and the team found themselves looking for a driver being Benny Cole and he said David you tell MC I'll Drive that car and I said you will because that's when DeWitt he was driving for LD to wit he wanted out of there or something I went in and told MC as you know Benny only said Benny parts will drive my race car I said yeah he'll drive it and he come down and they struck a deal and probably them two years was probably the calmness and the ease it Benny could keep me calm down I think he could but Benny's Benny and we had we had a good time than two years that was the best two years probably my life as Benny took a lot of pressure off me so it made it comfortable for me David and Benny was steady contenders they finished third in the championship in 1979 with two wins we complemented each other I you know Benny would say hey David this cart getting a little ratty inside here ain't it won it but it was it was constructive criticism we he he was right when he told me something you know you know we need to do this wouldn't need to do that and it he was right and he kept me motivated to because he's such a calm person he had just done you got doing what you just needed to do but then he knew when to push me to do do it better and do it do more of it as far as race car is concerned he was very good it was very good because again he had a very good personality so he could go around and talk to the other crew chiefs and find out what do you got right front yeah let me to he knew what everybody had in their cars and he could take all that information with what the driver told him and can make a better decision of what to do to his car plus with his personality could always surround himself with pretty good people to work on the racetrack in the team's second season together they were runner ups for the title with three wins but it was an emotionally tough season for both David and Benny the second year that he drove for us we were we were like I think about ninety points out of the league going in the Dover with about five or six races are left and Cale Yarborough was coming the next year and Benny we were we were all hurt and I think when people know that the change is coming and they didn't want it it kind of you know killed our race team really it kind of disappointed everybody and we were just going through the motions and then the last race I said Benny then let's go out with a bang and then we want Ontario the last race with Benny drove for us three-time Winston Cup champion Cale Yarborough joined the MC Anderson team in 1981 and the team found more success running a limited schedule well when Cale come to race I mean man we got Cale Yarborough that's like get Michael Jordan on your team and and you know we got pumped back up and we had a good race team we had a good race team with Benny we just took Cale knew we had a good race team or he would have never left Junior Johnson to come with us so and it was because of Benny we built that race team that way and Cale come and I think we run eighteen race at the first year and won six and then we run fifteen the next year and won five so we want a third of the races that we run we didn't we didn't run the whole schedule and we backed up and that was what Cale was doing anyway he was on his way out he wondered when MC couldn't convince Cael to run the full schedule Anderson decided to pack it in David was at a crossroads but his future picture was capitalized on his gregarious personality after the 25 seasons in the sport David moved on to form his own business consulting on race cars for others and doing some racing he also purchased Carolina Speedway near Rock Hill South Carolina where he promotes weekly races to this day the mention of his name brings smiles to all but know it okay David f don't like how you turn it through does not spend a lot of money on frills to save the leaf still remember his favorite gas cap on his car when I went to work first time I've worked with David a gas cap on his car was gone and they had like the flavors assured or something stuffed in there for gas gas David if is one of the funniest people you can spend time with he's old school I recently did a piece on David for Speedway Illustrated and he and I were kidding about how we just had to get that piece in print right away because if we didn't get it in print right away surely he would be gone from the team and indeed two weeks before the thing hit print David was gone from the team he'll come he'll go wherever he goes his magic is that he puts his hand on the car and the car goes faster David is one we need more David around particularly today everything has become so serious but you know I'm unfortunately for David I think his comments on these comedy routines are more well known than perhaps as accomplishments as a crew chief which is unfair to David they had time for you David here buddy parent but more hairy hi and maybe that's why so many people nowadays say the sport isn't funny anymore is because some of the antics that those people did would be frowned upon particularly by corporate America and maybe the sports forgotten how to have fun and maybe and that's sad fat dumb and happy he was a fun-loving carefree guy he was not you know Soliman down in the mouth he was always fun to be around he's a kid and that's that's probably the best word that you can use his character I don't know where he comes up to some of the cleaning lady comes in David David like I said he was great mechanic he was a way in One races he won races he and Benny they do this that they beat us short Motor Speedway you know that was a that was a strictly uh that was a crew chief against the crew chief call and David EF made the right call that day and I made the call to stay there and I made the call the stout on used tires and we wore our tires out and David made me call the put tires on and it was chancy at the time but but but he's a smart man in the pit and I like I said he'd not respect me as a mechanic as a person with all the fun times David's true contributions with a wrench or overlooked you can't be a successful crew chief on a car and not have talent and part of that talent is the ability to surround yourself with people that compliment what you do I think you look at all those crew chiefs and you if you could line them in up that each one of them had working for him when we were winning races you would find that they have similar personalities and they approach the sport the same way we did work hard work together I mean there was nothing it was not unusual for me to stay in the shop 18 hours with the crew and get in the truck and drive to the race track with them that was the camaraderie had to have back in those days to make everything work because the money wasn't there then the drivers didn't make the money there wasn't sponsorship money the crew guys didn't make a lot of money lots and lots of hours is more dedication and desire and wanting to be there and want to be a part of it there was anything else that's what David had to he really wanted to be successful I've never had a real job so I've been fortunate and I've done good made a good living in see everyday Saturday to make people work all week and you know get off and do what they want to do on Saturdays I've done what I want to do every day and you know as you get older you see things different and I've always been I think it relaxed the race teams when I joke around and with the guys and there was a time to be serious and then there was a time for playing and joking and everything and I think that kind of relaxed might that's why successful because they knew we worked hard and David would come out and play with the guys just golf or drinking or whatever carrying on and and they knew that but the next day we had to get the job done David EF continues to work in the sport today tutoring young drivers and crew chiefs and the craft of making cars go fast David emphasizes the team aspect of the sport while not taking everything so seriously that he forgets to laugh for men behind the wrenches I'm Jeff Hammond and thanks for joining us [Music] you

Channel: HODIUSDUDE

Views: 23,661

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Id: GWWtrWPdutA

Length: 21min 56sec (1316 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 27 2019