Guest Column By Cathy Elliott

If stock car racing had its own version of the old Ed Sullivan variety show, NASCAR Nationwide Series crew chief Trent Owens would be the plate spinner.

Remember the plate spinner? He was the guy who set numerous plates, bowls and other flat objects simultaneously twirling on poles without falling off. It was a feat requiring a combination of timing, balance, reflexes and a good understanding of the laws of physics.

One plate, one pole and one guy can be tricky to maintain. Multiple plates and poles present an entirely different challenge.

This is a principle Owens understands extremely well; he’s living it. This year, he has served as crew chief for Reed Sorensen, and Jacques Villeneuve, and, before health concerns sidelined him for the remainder of the 2010 season, Brian Vickers.

Teams change crew chiefs fairly frequently. The difference in Owens’ case is that this parade of drivers has been sharing seat time in a single car, Braun Racing’s No. 32 Dollar General Toyota. Considering the comprehensive job description of a crew chief, that’s a lot of plates. You might even say it’s a full set of dishes.

This racing salad bar presents some challenges for the guy who has to make all the ingredients work together. It runs against the grain of the standard stock car recipe of one driver, one crew chief, and one car. Substitutions do occur on this menu, as teams will sometimes bring in “specialist” drivers, particularly for road course races, but for Owens, the revolving driver door is all just part of the normal work routine.

Engines are built for the tracks on which they will race, but there are some modifications that have to be made according to the individual driver, obvious things like the seats and other interior stuff. The unknowns, according to Owens, are the things on the set-up side of the racetrack.

“Every driver is different. Every driver’s personality is different. Every driver has a different way of telling you what the car is doing. Mentally I have to be open-minded as to what the driver is going to need, because he is our best source of information,” he says.

“I just have to listen.”

‘Just listening’ sounds pretty easy, as long as everyone involved is speaking the same language. One quirky little twist to this tale has come from Villeneuve, who is French Canadian, and has the accent to prove it.

Owens is a native of Darlington, S.C., where the French Canadian accent is rarely –OK, never – heard … and yes, he has the accent to prove it. He laughs and admits, “With my Southern drawl, I’m probably not the easiest guy to understand on the radio, but it went pretty well at The Brickyard.”

The No. 32 Dollar General Toyota maintained a high profile in Indianapolis this season. Sorensen finished fifth in the Kroger 200 Nationwide Series race at O’Reilly Raceway Park; he currently sits 11th in the NNS driver standings.

Then, in a stock car racing reversal of the double-secret probation famously featured in the movie “Animal House,” Owens did some
double-public NASCAR duty. Villeneuve successfully qualified the No. 32 for The Brickyard 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, and finished inside the top 30, joining Juan Pablo Montoya as the only two drivers in history to compete in all three of the speedway’s premier races — the Indianapolis 500, the U.S. Grand Prix, and The Brickyard 400. Villeneuve won the Indy 500 in 1995.

“As a crew chief or a driver or whatever, you want to be part of the biggest shows,” he says. “Obviously the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with all the history there, it’s something you work a long time just to be a part of. I got to work with a driver who is world known, he’s a world champion, and all those cool things that some people never get to do. It was pretty special.”

It can take a crew chief many years to make it to the Cup Series, working with different teams and drivers along the way. Owens has basically embarked on a crash course, honing his skills with various levels of personnel and equipment in a short period of time. While some might balk at what could be perceived as a job in a continual state of flux, he has embraced it.

“It’s been a faster learning curve than you can get anywhere else. I’m not going to say it’s been easy, because it hasn’t. It would be a lot easier if I had just one driver,” he says. “But I was open to it because I wanted to learn quicker and try to move up through the ranks a lot quicker. If you were a closed-minded guy, it probably wouldn’t work out too well, but I think all that combination has made it work out great so far.”

For Owens, directing a Cup Series effort — at The Brickyard, of all places — was a major step toward achieving his ultimate goal.

“I’m definitely working in the Nationwide Series to progress and get to the Cup level. That’s where I want to be in a full time role,” he says. “This is the road I need to take to at least have a chance at it.”

As you follow Trent Owens’ path down that ambitious road, if you happen to spot a number of plates spinning on the shoulder along the way, don’t panic.

He hasn’t dropped one yet.

The opinions expressed in this articles are solely those of the author and not this website.