We Could Learn a lot from NASCAR

I was sitting down watching a NASCAR race recently and it struck me how the sport places a huge emphasis on its maintenance professionals!

Every NASCAR fan has his or her favorite driver. But their knowledge typically doesn’t stop with the driver. NASCAR does a good job of educating the public about the drivers’ crew chiefs – the top mechanics for the teams – at every opportunity it gets. As a result, not only does the typical NASCAR fan know who the crew chief is for their favorite driver, they likely know the crew chiefs for many of the drivers on the track.

And why shouldn’t this be the case? After all, even though the driver controls the car during the race, he or she wouldn’t be able to be competitive if it weren’t for the team behind the wall – the one’s that tweak and adjust the cars until they are where the drivers wants them.

You often hear crew chiefs interviewed after the races. They share their strategy that helped propel their driver to the checkered flag. They also get called to the carpet if they make a bad decision that causes their driver to lose a race. Good or bad, we hear from them often.

Here’s a question - how many A&P mechanics do you know that maintain the aircraft for the different air show performers? Furthermore, how often do you hear an aircraft mechanic interviewed after an exciting air race?

About the only time we hear about mechanics is when something goes wrong on an airplane. That’s when it’s all over the news.

Maybe we could learn a lot from NASCAR after all.
 

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D.O.M. magazine is the premier magazine for aviation maintenance management professionals. Its management-focused editorial provides information maintenance managers need and want including business best practices, professional development, regulatory, quality management, legal issues and more. The digital version of D.O.M. magazine is available for free on all devices (iOS, Android, and Amazon Kindle).

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