Daytona scandal pushes competition director into spotlight

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Robin Pemberton stepped out of the spotlight when he gave up a successful career as a top-level crew chief following the 2001 season.

Six years later, he's a far bigger star than he ever wanted to be.

NASCAR's competition director became the center of attention at Daytona as he led the crackdown on cheating.

The sport-coat clad Pemberton paced through the garage investigating corruption, then grimly faced the media on three consecutive days to announce the toughest penalties in NASCAR history.

"We're going to grab this one by the horns," Pemberton said on Day 1.

"We've got people's attention now," he declared on Day 2.

"You couldn't stage this stuff, even if you wanted to," he wearily offered on Day 3.

It was trying times for Pemberton, one of the first people in the garage and one of the last to leave each day as he worked with NASCAR's top officials to prevent the Daytona 500 from becoming a joke.

When the race finally began last Sunday, six crew members had been thrown out of the garage, $250,000 in fines had been levied and five drivers had been docked points. Most important, NASCAR had convinced a skeptical racing community that the Daytona 500 would be fair.

"I don't think there's any doubt that Robin has helped NASCAR's credibility and confidence among the competitors," NASCAR president Mike Helton said. "He is a nice complement to the NASCAR staff, particularly as it relates to the high visibility of the competition department."

Pemberton, who led Rusty Wallace to 15 victories, joined the staff almost three years ago, and he's still trying to get comfortable in the job.

"The transition from being on one side of the fence to the other, how I manage relationships, how I work the garage area and work the teams, it's something that takes a while to figure out," said Pemberton, who spent 22 years working side-by-side with the people he now polices.

When he left Wallace's team after 230 races -- a streak that had been the longest active driver-crew chief tandem in the Cup series -- Pemberton had hoped to scale back a bit and spend some time with his two sons before they left for college.

But after brief stints with Petty Enterprises and Ford Racing, NASCAR wooed him to a position that requires more work and even longer days than he ever put in as a crew chief.

It was everything the 50-year-old Pemberton had been trying to escape after a career in which he missed less than a dozen races since 1979.

"I won't be the first to admit that plan didn't really go right for me," he said. "Maybe it's because I've always worked seven days a week, even before I was in racing. I just gravitate to jobs that take seven days a week."

Because of Pemberton's experience in the garage and the relationships he had built, NASCAR felt he was the perfect fit.

The competitors, who praise Pemberton for his professionalism, agree.

"Robin brings a perspective to our sport that, for someone in that job, is much needed," Jeff Burton said. "He is someone who has been there recently, understands how this thing works, understands the mentality of the teams. It used to be that NASCAR never had that. It was their group, and it was our group.

"But Robin has made NASCAR understand some things and made us understand some things. He's very open-minded. He's very fair. He's easy to talk to, and he's not afraid to disagree with you."