KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina — Brett Morrell and Derek Kneeland – both native Windhamites – are living their dreams nowadays as members of NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series pit crews based out of Kannapolis, North Carolina.
“My dad got me started in go-karts at Beech Ridge when I was 7,” Morrell says, “and when I turned 15, I raced in the truck series as part of Thursday Thunder. I finished third in my first race and won my second race. I raced until I was 18 and I moved to North Carolina shortly after.”
Morrell, now in his mid-30s, relocated in 2003; his first opportunity down South came at the pit crew school 5 Off 5 On, in Mooresville. He heaped up experience with several teams including Evernham Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, then jumped to Stewart-Haas Racing in December of 2013 when that outfit expanded their operations and added the No. 4 car with driver Kevin Harvick.
During the week, Morrell works not just as a member of Harvick’s pit crew, but also as a mechanic in the race shop, specializing in motor installation, brakes and cooling. His efforts, and those of the rest of Harvick’s team, paid off hugely in 2014, when they won the NASCAR Spring Cup Series Championship.
Morrell remarked on the win, and the awards banquet, held in Las Vegas. “It was something not a lot of crew members get to do,” he said. “Being on a championship team was a great experience. It was something I always strived to be part of, and hope to achieve again.”
Kneeland, meanwhile, followed a similar route to Kannapolis.
“I grew up racing in Maine in go-karts, four-cylinder cars, sports series and now, super late models,” he says. “When I was 17, sponsorship was getting harder to come by, and we didn’t have a family business or anything to help pay for the tires, fuel and other normal racing expenses, so I told my parents I didn’t want to continue spending their money.”
“For the next year and a half, I started spotting for Corey Williams,” Kneeland says. “I had a lot of fun, but it was continuing to eat at me, as in my heart I was still a racer and hated being out of the seat.”
A spotter relays information to the driver about what is happening on the track during a race.
Feeling in need of a change, Kneeland sought out Warren Hamilton. Hamilton lives in Maine now and owns ASM Graphics, but at the time was working in Concord, North Carolina.
“I got a hold of him and they just happened to have an opening at their shop,” Kneeland says. “He spoke with his boss and down I went for an interview. Two weeks later, I was moving to Kannapolis to live with Warren and his wife and working at the decal shop.”
Kneeland stuck with the gig for a couple years; on weekends, he continued spotting for Williams, who’d moved to North Carolina not long after Kneeland. This tangle of new and old connections put Kneeland in touch with Brian Scott, who eventually asked Kneeland to spot for him in an Automobile Racing Club of America event at Pocono, in Pennsylvania.
“Things went awesome,” Kneeland said, “and after the race, Brian said he wanted me to spot for him the following weekend in Nashville in the ARCA race and the truck race. After that weekend, they asked me to spot full-time for the rest of the season, and that’s when the path led to me wanting to make it as a Cup spotter. I was 21 years old at that time, and Brian and I worked together all through truck racing, Xfinity racing, at Gibbs and [Richard Childress Racing].”
“My goal when I started spotting in NASCAR was to make it to Cup by the time I was 30,” says Kneeland, 32. He got his chance at 26, when he received a call from Chip Ganassi Racing, asking him to spot in an upcoming race. That gig functioned as an interview, too, and Kneeland soon joined Chip Ganassi full-time. He now works on Kyle Larson’s highly successful squad.
While Morrell and Kneeland work on different crews in the Cup Series, earlier this year they were surprised to find themselves teammates in the Camping World Truck Series. One particular Truck Series race from this past season stands out for both, as they earned an early trip to victory lane with young gun John Hunter Nemechek at Martinsville, in Virginia.
“I saw Derek walking through the garage in Martinsville,” Morrell says. “We talked a little bit and he said he was going to be spotting for the truck, which was John Hunter Nemechek. I told him that I was the jackman for the truck today, and I asked him if it was the first time he had been doing it. He said that he had been doing it all year and didn’t realize I was listening to him on the (spotter) radio and he didn’t realize it was me he was watching jack the truck. That day, we ended up winning the race and got to go to victory lane together, which was great, being there with a longtime friend from when we were kids.”
“It’s been cool to see how many Maine people have gone down and made it in the sport,” Kneeland says. “At Martinsville earlier this year, I was spotting for JH Nemechek and we had a great battle and were able to pull off the win and get one of the coolest trophies out there, being the Grandfather clock.”
The two will continue working with different crews and drivers in the Truck series, and will work in the Xfinity Series as well.
“It’s just really cool how there are so many people in the world and then there are only so many people that get to do our jobs and we get to be on winning teams together,” Kneeland says of his connection with Morrell. “He’s been doing this a long time and it’s great to see that we are both able to have success at the highest peaks of this sport.”
Morrell advises anyone with aspirations akin to his own to go all in. “Move to North Carolina, where there are a high concentration of teams based, such as Mooresville or Concord,” he says. “For pit crew, consider going to one of the schools – it’s a great way to network and get to know people and learn what is happening in the industry.”
Adam Birt can be reached at abirt@keepmecurrent.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CurrentSportsME. Lori Jo Rich works for The Racing Connection.
Derek Kneeland, left, works as a spotter and Brett Morrell is a mechanic and jackman in North Carolina. Both grew up in Windham.
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