Nascar's Shaun Peet

83 Red Bull Toyota Jackman on Auto Racing

I am NASCAR's Jackman for 83 Red Bull Toyota. My dad had a garage and an auto-parts store, so I grew up on the fringe of motorsports, but we were a drag racing family more than we were a racing family.

I’ve joked that being a jackman is a cakewalk, but the reality is it’s very dangerous - a 3,500-pound race car that’s a foot off your heel at 55 mph. That would be like going out onto a busy highway, putting your feet on the yellow line and letting traffic run by you.

I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve never been blasted by a car, but I’ve been grazed a couple times and had my heels run over. Two years ago I went down on the jack handle and my knuckles scraped the rear quarter panel of Jason Leffler’s car. I live to ride on the edge. I’m more scared of being bored than anything else. If you focus on the fear, then you’re not cut out for this job.

The NASCAR Tradition

NASCAR is really steeped in tradition. NASCAR’s still an Old Boy’s Club, but as times are changing, it is opening up to women and minorities. There are 105 Fortune 500 companies involved in NASCAR. That said, it makes the NHL look like a melting pot. It is a white male sport and it’s been like that for years. It’s not known for its open-mindedness, but I’d say it’s made giant strides in the last five years, though it still has a long ways to go.

Team Red Bull

I jack for 83 Red Bull Toyota and the driver’s name is Brian Vickers.

It’s the start of the season and people are just raring to go. We race every weekend until the weekend before Thanksgiving. We were out of the top 35 in points, so we had to race our way into the Daytona 500. Everything down to the Red Bull cans in the fridge have to be turned facing out.

When you have a company like Home Depot putting millions of dollars into sponsoring one of these race cars, if you’re wearing a Home Depot jacket or hat, you’re expected to act with a certain level of professionalism. When I worked with Chip Ganassi racing, one of the cars was sponspored by Coors Light. There was a company fine if we were ever caught out in public with a Miller Lite.

With Red Bull, we’re lucky that it’s such a unique and youthful company. It’s not so strict about having shirts tucked in we have a multi-million dollar deal with Puma, so we can’t ever be caught with Oakleys or any other brand’s shirts or shades or watches. That would be a big no-no. As for this season, I’m hoping it will bring a victory for Red Bull, NASCAR’s newest team.