The body shop foreman for Hendrick Motorsports in Concord, N.C., handles the sheet metal work, among other duties, for all four cars in Hendrick’s star-studded stable of drivers that includes Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin.
Realizing his own racing career didn’t have the funding to get him to the Winston Cup Series, Reedy headed down to North Carolina.
Driving from shop to shop he met Waddell Wilson, then the crew chief for Jeff Bodine, and got his break in NASCAR.
“I guess he had a hunch or took a liking to me, or felt sorry for me that I had Debbie and the two kids out in the car and he offered me a job,” Reedy said.
Today, he’ll watch the inaugural Quaker State 400 (7:30 p.m., TNT) on television and hope the wind tunnel work and talent to find a little more speed playing within NASCAR’s 1/1000th of an inch tolerance — basically the thickness of a quarter — puts one of Hendrick’s four cars in Victory Lane.
Johnson, Earnhardt Jr., and Gordon are Nos. 6-7-8 in the points standings, while Martin is 18th.
These days Reedy’s work is done in Hendrick’s shop, located a mile down the road from Charlotte Motor Speedway. Today he hopes Hendrick’s drivers do a bang-up job, but not too banged up.
“In my business,” Reedy said, “it’s kind of job security.”
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