What is it like to travel with a NASCAR team? All you need to know

Traveling for races as a NASCAR team is a complex task involving meticulous planning and logistics to ensure the equipment and cars arrive on the tracks without damage and on time. With 38 race weekends annually, the team has to find a traveling plan that allows them to reach even tracks far away from their headquarters.

NASCAR teams travel between races in different ways, with the journey beginning at their team's headquarters. Drivers and crew members travel by air to the tracks on race weekends. While drivers usually travel in their private planes, the crew flies in flights provided by the team or semi-trucks.

The cars are transported to the tracks via haulers or big rigs accompanied by two team members responsible for the transportation. Sometimes drivers and co-drivers leave the headquarters on Tuesday morning to reach the track on time for the weekend practice session. Haulers are the first to arrive and the last to leave the track after the car and all the components are loaded inside.

NASCAR teams need one hauler to haul their car to the track, and loading the car in the hauler is a task in itself. The pit crew needs to remove the slicks and put the grooved tires back on the car. Additionally, the team needs to remove NASCAR-owned components from the car. These will be used for collecting data at the governing body headquarters. This process is followed after every race throughout the nine-month season.

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Let's take a look at NASCAR team employees offseason

NASCAR's off-season starts at the end of November and concludes in the last week of January. The first week of February marks the start of the new season of stock car racing, which means teams only get two months to take a break and regroup ahead of the new season.

Reflecting upon the shortest off-season break among all the series, the Joe Gibbs Racing president said:

“I often get people that ask me, hey, the season's over, what are you doing? And that's a good question. Well, what we're not doing is traveling to the racetrack on the weekends. But otherwise, it's not too much different during the week in the shop. If you're in the front office, you're working hard on things for next year. Sponsorship renewals, car designs, working with our partners to prepare for next season.”

“If you're downstairs, you might be starting to, there's a lot of organizing and cleaning. This is the time of year that our shop sometimes gets a facelift, whether it's resurfacing floors, painting. But everyone around the shop is either prepping for next year, cleaning up from last year, or doing planning for the upcoming season,” he continued.

JGR will run four cars in the 2025 season: #20 driver Christopher Bell wrapped the 2024 season in fifth place, followed by #11 driver Denny Hamlin in eighth place on the points table. #54 driver Ty Gibbs wrapped his season in 15th place. The team has added a new car, #19, to their organization for the 2025 season, and former Stewart Haas Racing driver Chase Briscoe will pilot the car.