DirtonDirt exclusive
Drivers often face breakdown in communications
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt managing editor
Devin Moran signals crew members. (joshjamesartwork.com)
Plenty of folks find ways to communicate with Dirt Late Model drivers behind the wheel. Colorful flags waved from the starter’s stand, a flurry of sticks and neon-gloved hands from signaling crew members, officiated voice instructions via one-way RaceCeivers — and the occasional retaliatory bump from a fellow competitor.
But a driver’s opportunity to reply? Meager at best.
Other than employing a few difficult-to-interpret hand signals, shouting replies to crew members in the hot pit, or revving the engine to startle a pit-crossing pedestrian, drivers have limited ability to communicate with the outside world while bundled up in bulky gloves, protective gear and fully-enclosed helmets.
With two-way radios long prohibited, a simple thumbs up or A-OK to crew members during a caution period is among the few ways drivers can tell anyone what’s going on inside the race car.
“Other than that, there's not a whole lot,” said Donald McIntosh, the Dawsonville, Ga., driver and 2025 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Rookie of the Year. But even a thumb signal is mostly superfluous.
While thumbs up to crew members is “good” and thumbs down is “no good,” McIntosh said, "they pretty well already know that if I'm going forwards it's good … if I'm going backwards it's not.”
More intricate explanations to crew members from the drivers’ seat during caution periods are limited, said Jupiter, Fla., driver Clay Harris.
“You just kind of talk with your hands, I guess,” he said. “Try to explain it with your hands, I guess. I don't know.”
Dan Ebert of Lake Shore, Minn., who recently concluded his first year as a national touring driver on the Lucas Oil Series, knows that hand signals to the crew, or trying to communicate during the hectic chaos of a quick pit stop, is difficult at best and exasperating at worst.
"I see it from their side because sometimes they don't know what you're talking about,” Ebert said. “It might be crystal clear to you, but it might not be for them.”
Reaching out
For drivers to even give signals back to their crew members, they have to know where they are. So with different tracks offering different spots for crews to watch — often from the infield — the first thing drivers must do is let crew members know they can see them.
“When we pull on the racetrack, locating where they are, maybe giving them a thumbs up to let them know that you see them and you're aware of that,” Ebert said.
Beyond that, because of distance and dark conditions on many racetracks, crew members may not be able see any signals from their drivers during caution periods.
World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series champ Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., is often in total sync with his father and crew chief Bob Pierce, the retired Hall of Fame racer who often dons a pink pullover and gloves so his son can see him. While the younger Pierce often gleans info from his father — typically about what grooves other drivers are running — the older Pierce doesn’t often get much feedback from his son.
“If I ever try to like wave at him, he never sees it because it’s so dark,” Bobby Pierce said.
Trying to ask questions of crew members is almost always fruitless, Pierce said, because the crews simply can’t interpret what Pierce wants to know with rudimentary hand signals.
"There's been times where like, say, just as an example, where like if the scoreboard's not working at a track and I wanna know how many laps are left, sometimes I know they can't see me,” Pierce said.
He’ll try to hold up a number of fingers and make a circular motion with the other hand, aiming for a sign language version of how many laps are remaining. The reaction from his crew? Fruitless.
“They just look at me,” Pierce said.
Other signals might be a little clearer, like if Pierce knows the car has serious problems, he’ll hold up two together to mimic breaking a stick. “That’s kind of a universal signal,” he said. But how do you give two-handed signals and continue to steer the car?
“You put your forearm on the wheel and you do it quickly,” Pierce said. “These cars turn left when you don't have your hands on the wheel, so like you might turn right a little bit and then do it and then it like counteracts itself so then you catch it.”
Cody Mahoney of Madison, Ind., has his own strategy if he needs to make a two-handed signal under caution.
“Drive with a knee … or an elbow,” he said, adding that it’s not ideal. “I mean, it's pretty busy out there.”
To better see McIntosh’s hands on the racetrack, his former Billy Hicks Racing team had an idea.
“They bought me white gloves so they could kind of see my hands,” McIntosh said. “I don't think it made any difference. They get dirty and they don't stay white long.”
Finding your voice
Drivers also face the challenge of verbal communication during hectic stops to the hot pit during a caution flag. But even being helmet-to-face with a crew member can be difficult because the hot pit is so loud, the race director may be barking orders over the RaceCeiver and everyone’s in such a hurry.
“I try to shut my car off so I can actually hear what they're saying. Then usually right when I do that they come on the RaceCeiver. Then I can't hear nothing,” said Earlham, Iowa, driver Daniel Hilsabeck, who says he unplugs his Raceceiver port while he’s in the pits. “That way at least I can hear them if they're yelling back at me. Normally (crew chief Tristan Vesterby is) just trying to put on a new tire if we get a flat. It seems like the cautions go so quick, there's not a whole lot of like adjustments you can do. Mainly it's just like if you get something wrecked or you get a flat, just get it fixed as fast as possible. Normally there's not a whole lot of communication when I’m in the hot pit.”
Jason Jameson uses a similar strategy as Hilsabeck in killing the motor and disconnecting the RaceCeiver.
“Ninety percent of the time when the yellow's out and you're coming in and try to pit, you can't hear your pit crew talking because they're talking (on the RaceCeiver) so I usually unplug mine,” Jameson said. “And then once (the pit stop ends) I'll forget to plug it back in and then the (green) comes back, ‘Well shoot, I better plug that son of a bitch back in because I forgot I unplugged it.’ ”
Mahoney says driver and crew have to be on the same page about exiting the hot pit to make sure the car’s back on the track before the green flag returns.
“The way I've always done it is, if they're on my RaceCeiver, and I'm the driver, and they're hollering, ‘Hey, you need to hurry up,’ the only thing I'll do is just start it up and they know you’ve got another 15 seconds here,” he said. “I need to wrap this up as fast as I can. And then when the jack is dropped, everything should be done. Everybody should be away, and then I can drive off.”
There are plenty of raised voices in the hot pit, Harris said.
“You just gotta scream it because I mean there's a lot of motors and everybody's trying to figure out what's going on. You just gotta get your point across and you kind of scream it,” he said at a September event, adding that it’s easy to be misunderstood amid the din of race engines. "I think Lernerville (Speedway), like a couple weeks ago, they're changing — I think I told them to change the right rear and they changed the left rear — and I went back on the racetrack. I come back in and they're like, 'We already changed the left rear.' 'We need to change the right rear.' 'Why didn't you tell me that in the first place?’ ”
Ebert doesn’t quite use a mind meld, but says it helps to see his crew members while he’s trying to talk, flipping up his face shield for a message that’s muffled by his mouth-covered helmet.
“The shield up helps trying to look at them — look at your eyes, their eyes — helps with some nonverbal communication,” Ebert said, “and just scream like hell.”
Competitor communication
Drivers, of course, occasionally make signals to fellow competitors. One such signal is ubiquitous, if not always seen by the fans.
"Maybe the No. 1," Jameson said. " I'll tell 'em they're the No. 1.”
While the middle finger is popular, Jameson also might use a finger in case he's taking the blame for a situation with another driver. He might pull up next to a competitor during a caution period and point an index finger to his chest.
“I’ll just point like, ‘That's my fault' type of deal. You know what I mean? Then they know,” Jameson said. “Drivers know who's at fault all the time and sometimes there's a racing deal where both drivers are at fault or neither one of them really could have done anything different to not create (an) accident.”
Instead of flipping a driver off, Ebert said sometimes he’ll point a finger at his helmet while looking at another competitor.
“The ‘You’re No. 1’ happens occasionally. Sometimes the pointing at your head, like ‘Use your head.' Like, ‘What were you thinking?’ Or the natural hands up in a ‘what-for’ signal,” Ebert said.
In other cases, drivers might want to communicate with a fellow driver as a gesture of sportsmanship. If a driver has a deflating tire, a rubbing fender or another problem out of the driver’s field of vision, competitors might pull up beside him under caution to notify him of the situation.
“Like maybe if somebody's got a tire going down or a flat tire and they don't know about it, or like if they got like their fender's rubbing their tire, a guy might pull up to you and like give you a signal,” Hilsabeck said. “Normally then whoever that is just pulls down to the turn-four (official) and they check it out.”
Mahoney, a longtime driver as well as former crew chief for Don O’Neal in his days with the MasterSbilt house car, uses a variety of signals to alert other drivers.
“If you’ve got a guy in front of you smoking, you'll kind of (wave your hand) in front of your face like, ‘Hey, you're smoking, you got something wrong.’ Or you might pull up next to him and kind of clap your hands, means you got a flat tire, or you can put both your hands up — like you're doing a pull up or something — where they've got like body rubbing, like you can point at it and they need to stop and get it pulled (out) or something.”
Ebert said letting other drivers know about problems could be beneficial to everyone “because, at the end of the day, I mean if you do go green again, they tear up a bunch of stuff on their own car, but it could cause a big wreck and you could be in it.”
Pierce said sometimes if his car feels like it might have an issue he’ll signal a fellow driver in search of assistance.
"Sometimes you’ll pull up to another driver, like, for example, you might think like your fender’s in your tire or something, or quarterpanel, you might pull up to someone and kind of like wiggle at them — and hope they know that you're not just mad at them or something — hope they know that you're like, ‘Hey, I need some help,’ and then you kind of like point,” Pierce said.
It’s not a perfect science, but drivers are always trying to learn better ways to communicate from behind the wheel and vice versa.
“You talk about it going down the road that night to the next track … you work on it and after a year or so you kind of get to know what somebody's saying,” Hilsabeck said.
Ebert’s inexperience has shown in signaling, “but we're learning,” he said. “I think a lot of guys are better communicators than we are at this point, and there's sometimes it just clicks better than others.”
