Jefferson Hodges Paves The Way For Anyone Trying To Make It In Motorsports | Dale Jr. Download

It all started out with a simple question: can I help? From helping out on his uncle’s race car, Jefferson Hodges career blossomed into working with Team Penske, but not without some notable stops along the way.

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Rev racing it is a reputable functioning successful program it goes to the racetrack it runs well yeah it wins races yeah and it serves an incredible incredibly important purpose in the NASCAR industry yeah um I mean they’ve won two or three truck races this year and half the Cup races with their

Graduates yeah and they’re creating opportunities um and so talk about that so as someone who has lived that program right talk about how important the purpose of that program is to give these drivers these opportunities it’s everybody gets an opportunity right it’s not just the drivers it’s a it’s a true development

Program and you know if you go back to 2000 that program gave me an opportunity to be a crew chief right like I wasn’t one and we got that house car at Townson and I became one because of that program right so it’s it’s not just the drivers

Um I think you know whether it’s the P crew members or the people that work in the shop you know like Dylan Smith Mamba was he wanted to be a race car driver and and he could do it but it just didn’t seem to be panning out the way he

Wanted it to but we knew there was a place for him in the sports so we made him a mechanic and we taught him that and had him he he worked for me for years um and look at him now right like it’s it doesn’t necessarily and that was

Kind of the thing I tried to explain to every parent and every driver that came through there your place in this sport might not be in the seat right and maybe that was something that I learned from TJ but there’s a place for everyone here you just have to find it and and

Depending on how hard you’re willing to look is whether you’ll find it or not how how do you make the decision to to leave uh it was tough um I had so no intentions of ever leaving like I had I had um I had seen it go from in debt to

Debt free we won championships we won races like you know you along the way I’ve been fortunate to win some cool stuff you go to South Boston and you win a late mile stock car race with a 16-year-old girl that Philip Morris and Lee pulam and pton sellers are all in

That race and you beat them like it’s fun like it’s fun to know that that you provided an opportunity for somebody that was not there without the program and the people that worked there so I had started um spotting more and more just I started doing it even before I moved to

Charlotte but it was just here there gigs and Joey Meyer somehow through our working together at Dei um he reached reached out and asked me if I wanted to start doing all the second spot and stuff with him so it was with Brad you know Watkins Glenn Indie

Whatever it was that kind of parlayed into the oneoff exfinity races for Pensky um so now I kind of had my foot in the door Brad was actually really helpful with the program you know there was things he could donate that that he would through his truck team and he was

Big help um so like everything was going great I was perfectly happy like I was get in the Moonlight and do this stuff every here and I felt like I was staying relevant in those garages and never wanted to become a full-time spotter so like I didn’t really have to worry about

Like trying to push my way through that pile and yeah and um it was just going well and um Travis gesler called me one day and he was kind of who like lined up the spot and stuff with um so you know I answered didn’t think

Anything of it he wanted to talk and there was some rumors going around that maybe Joey and Brad were going to go their separate ways and I was like oh boy like I really don’t want to be a full-time Spotter and I really don’t want to upset Joey like I don’t I would

Never do that um that was a that was a tough conversation cuz Joey thought that I was and he was pretty upset with me until he realized what was happening um but yeah it started out like I’m not going to burn a bridge right I’m going to go have this

Conversation um but this is not going to lure me away from rev like we’re winning you you know K big K&N races I mean we’re winning at do and lden and like big places like um so he asked me to come to their bus at Charlotte in the infield which rev

Racing is right behind the speedway so it was really easy and I texted him and told him I was there and he said go on inside walk straight to the back there’s an office in the back I’ll be there in a minute so I sling the door up like I own

The place and RP stand and there at the table signing champagne bottles from the n500 win I’m like whoa I think this is about spotting like I don’t feel like RP does the spotter interviews so anyway that’s kind of how it came and and it wasn’t about spotting what was it about

Uh they were looking for a team manager for their NASCAR side and ultimately there’s three of us there’s a there’s an impsa version of me there’s a NASCAR and then there’s an indie car um and they were looking to um you know hire somebody for the NASCAR side yeah so

That was kind of what it was about and it was still surprisingly um it was a very hard decision cuz it wasn’t you know it wasn’t like every one of those employees at rev which which Jimmy G was one of them right like your uncle was he um he

Worked for me for five or six years right like those were people I hired those were people that I gave my word that you’re going to get paid and we’re going to have fun and we’re going to win races I can’t control that if I don’t work work there anymore so like there

Was a part of me that I felt like I was breaking that promise yeah to them what would happen if you left what would happen if I left yep um max and I had a partnership that’s more like a Brotherhood and it still is um he never

Question a thing I did and I didn’t question anything he did um we just we had a plan we stuck to it uh we had provided a lot of opportunities put a lot of pick crew members and drivers in the National level um and there was

Really stopping it so it was a tough decision yeah and you know lots of people were like God you’re crazy this isn’t a tough decision but they didn’t know how emotionally connected I was to what Max and I were doing um so believe it or not I called kelly my sister yeah

And um you know time heals everything right so like I remember who sat at the table um when you know when I didn’t work at Junior Motorsports anymore but enough time had passed and like you know I feel like her and I had had some good conversations along the way and you kids

That are similar age and just things um and I was like I I need I need to ask you something like and I know it’s going to sound crazy but like I feel like her place in this sport uh and you know her reputation for being brutally honest was like it’s what

I needed and I also know that she understands what it’s like to be a female race car driver in this sport right so if anything was going to you know tug on the heartstrings a little bit it’s that so I knew I’d get the

Truth so I laid it all out there and she was like are you crazy and I was like no it’s like it’s a tough decision so I asked her I said let me ask you a question at the time Ryan pton was here like things were rolling good like

Everything was great and I you know I asked her I said if Ryan came in tomorrow and turned in his notice and you had to make a list of people to interview to replace him would my name be on that list and she was like No And

I’m like dang I thought we had a history like come on you can at least put me at the bottom of the list right and she was like no like I didn’t even know this is what you did like I thought you were you know like I didn’t realize you were

Running an entire organization like for our sanctioning body like it was way more than just racing like sure the the relationships with NASCAR were like the best thing that came of that program for me really and I said all right well what if I take this job and then we have the

Same conversation in three years would I be on the list then and she was like absolutely top of the list like one of the top three no questions asked like anybody that comes from Team Pensky is like you know top of the list I’m like all right well there’s my decision so I

Went home and was like Kelly said I need to take this job he was like okay this is what we’re going to do so yeah how long have you been there this is uh six six six years six working on six what has all happened in the six

Years God it’s unbelievable man like two exfinity championships like so I think um you know I think that you and I have gotten along from day one cuz I when you would come to towns and you know you were Dale’s son right to a lot of the guys that worked there I

Didn’t care right I just wanted you to go home and say man there’s this badass that works on late models in Richmond and he should be here and maybe that happened a couple years later same similar story happened with Austin like I had no idea who Austin centric’s dad

Was none I spotted for Austin at all the non-companion truck races and we were at Elora for the truck race in the dirt and we were going to leave there and drive to Indie to orp to go he was going to run an arcer race the next night and he

Asked me if we could take his dad um to the racetrack to Indie sure so we’re riding down the road it’s the middle of the night and he asked me what I do and I’m telling him all about what I do at rev and like super proud of

Myself and I asked him what he did for a living I had no idea like none and I think that’s just like you know who I was like right like I just Austin was a good kid and I wanted to be a part of what he was

Doing cuz I saw something there he’s extremely intelligent I didn’t care who his dad was and I think a lot of people maybe did and I didn’t even know had no idea so that like I got to be there for I was like Austin’s first Arc win I

Spotted for him Austin’s first truck win I was there Austin’s first exfinity win I was there right like I’ve been got to see that so it was like this still this development leg that I’ve found this niche in yeah um but man since then like Daytona 500s Indie 500

Rolex 24s like things that were completely unimaginable to a kid sitting in the wooden bleachers at Langley Speedway have happened yeah I remember um coming to The Cup race and seeing you walking around in the in the pits wearing a wearing black slacks and a button down white Co college shirt with

Pinsky on it thinking how in the hell MH you know like that is a long way from home it’s a long way from home um you know your story it’s probably not unlike a lot of people in the industry but it’s it’s an it’s an easier one to

Tell um and I think it does answer a lot of questions for people out there who are young people that are that kid that you were when you were working over at Townsen wondering man how am I gonna H how what is the path like how do I get there it seems

Impossible improbable I don’t even know where to begin and so I have such a hard time telling people how to begin right what what to do I mean literally man I woke up and I was plugged in right because of who I am when you get that

Question how do I get into this sport what is your answer it’s tough I think I think the first thing you have to you have to make sure of is is like are you really willing to do the work or it’s it’s fun to to talk about it’s not always

Necessarily cut out for everybody right we’re gone a lot it’s a lot of hard work you’re probably going to get kicked When You’re Down When You’re vulnerable um and then when you least expect it the most amazing things in the world are going to happen but most of them I mean

The simple answer is you know you got to go to a short track and you got to find somebody right like I was lucky I found Rick you know Rick introduced me to people like Danny Edwards Jr and people that were just local Legends and kind of they didn’t necessarily

They gave me confidence right like watching these these guys so that’s that happened so that that’s the simple answer is you go to your short track but nowadays probably better start with college really yeah I feel like I feel like those those you know it’s it’s pretty engineering driven sport I I

Think it it helps a lot um I did not ever think that my college education was going to do anything for me especially when I was hanging upside down in a roll cage welding it up at towns and like what good is it there but I feel certain

Somewhere along the line somebody at Pensky looked to see if I was college educated like so it did help it just took a lot longer than I expected um but yeah I mean the biggest thing is you know it’s the work ethic like the the the people in this in this industry are

The hardest working human beings in the country like it’s it is unbelievable the the mountains that we can move like you look at the the way NASCAR adapted to to the co situation or the way like thousands of people in the middle of Los Angeles never blinked an eye when they

Were like hey guys we’re going to race later today like that wasn’t on anybody’s radar when we woke up that morning yeah and move the Clash yeah and nobody cared like it’s just okay that’s what we’re going to do let’s go do it so that’s the thing like you just got to be

Willing to work hard yeah the sacrifice that you got to make um I love telling the story about a buddy of mine Wesley Cheryl who worked over at Gibbs now he wouldn’t uh Dad wouldn’t hire him dad I mean all dad all I needed dad to

Do was give this guy a couple hundred bucks right and dad would not do it dad said hey if you work here if you’re here long enough to prove that you deserve it you might get the job and he literally had to work for more than a month

Without pay MH and he kept coming back every day and I was he’s like when do you think it’s going to happen I was like I don’t know man but don’t give up you’re almost there I don’t even I I can’t even give you an answer when this

Might go go right for you but don’t stop coming to work and eventually it just clicked one day dad walks in and goes all right you’re hired you know yep and I know that’s probably not the way it’s going to go for everybody but I mean you

Got to be willing to do something do it for nothing yeah not for the money right right I worked for three years for Rick for $6 an hour never got a raise not not a nickel didn’t think anything of it was just happy to call in every day yeah I

Hired a guy at rev who’s still there awesome he was he was willing to do anything and and that came out of his mouth and we were heading to Iowa and I told him I’m like man I need the help and I think you’d be great but all the

Plane tickets are bought and paid for and there’s no money left in the cookie jar like if you want to go if you want a job when we get to Iowa get in that truck I’ll see you there and he did damn that’s what had how he wanted to do it

And and he’s still employed there Yeah