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CHAMPION CREW CHIEF PROFILE: Mike Greci
Stock car racing veteran Mike Greci served as an integral part of the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Series East Champion No. 00 NAPA Toyota team, driven by Ryan Truex.
As crew chief for the Michael Waltrip Racing development team, Greci took on the large task of not only preparing the cars and calling the shots on race day, but also mentoring a rookie driver in Truex.
This was not something new for Greci, however. A few years after earning back-to-back Camping World Series East titles as a car owner in 1997 and 1998 (also as the crew chief) with Mike Stefanik behind the wheel, Greci found himself in charge of grooming the older son of Martin Truex Sr., Martin Jr.
Martin Jr. got his start in NASCAR racing with Greci as crew chief in the Camping World Series East. After a successful run, Martin Jr. was signed by Chance 2 Motorsports to run in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Greci went along and helped Martin Jr. to a pair of titles and an eventual move to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Dale Earnhardt Inc.
As head of DEI’s three-car development program in the Camping World Series East at the time, Greci first worked with Ryan professionally at the 2008 season finale at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway. They’ve been acquaintances for many years, however.
“I’ve known him since I was little. I remember running around the race shop and he’d come rough me up or whatever,” Truex said. “I’ve known him for a long time. He’s still kind of rough on me, but I think it helps me out in the long run.”
As 2009 rolled around, Martin Sr. wanted to get Ryan involved in the Camping World Series East full time. When things were all ironed out, Ryan got a car that would be fielded by Michael Waltrip Racing and Greci was named his crew chief.
While Ryan adapted to the larger and more powerful cars as the season got underway, the exceptional working relationship he had with Greci was nearly instantaneous, and the season they put together for a first-year unit was remarkable.
“We have good communication,” Truex said. “Before every race we’d talk about our strategy, what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it. He’d always keep me calm on the radio, tell me what to do, when to save tires and stuff like that. He’s been a great crew chief.”
Although the string of top finishes didn’t start for the team until the fourth race of the year at South Boston (Va.) Speedway, Greci points to the third outing of the year at Iowa Speedway where the team showed the first signs of what was to come.
“It started taking off at Iowa,” Greci said. “We loaded off the truck pretty good. He was a little hesitant because he had never been at a place like that before, but things started to click and started to go good from there. Obviously we crashed at Iowa, but our race car was really good. After that, to get seven top three’s in a row is pretty amazing.”
