Team Dover helps make NASCAR weekend successful

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Chuck Walker
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  While Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Kobalt/Lowe's Chevy, was winning for a record-breaking eighth time at the Monster Mile in the AAA 400 Sept. 29, 2013, Airmen from Team Dover were completing another successful weekend of community relations.

Team Dover members manned static display vehicles in the Monster Fun Zone and the USO Military Village, serving refreshments in the concession stands, working track security and being honored as honorary pit crew members for NASCAR drivers.


One person who is thankful for this presence is Gary Camp, senior director of communications for Dover International Speedway. Camp said race weekend couldn't happen without the Air Force.

"We know that our Team Dover race weekend employees will always get the job done," Camp said. "We feel confident of putting them in critical jobs, because they always do an excellent job."

Jennifer Vallee, 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs chief of community relations, said the Air Force's participation in race weekend is essential.

"Our participation is a tool of recruitment for the Air Force and a show of our support for the community," Vallee said. "The community wants to interact and have relationships with our military members. The NASCAR teams and sponsors seek us out. This is a small way they show their support of us, especially our military members."

Senior Airman Adam Monoski, 436th Civil Engineer Squadron, who worked as an honorary pit crew member for Dave Blaney, driver of the No. 7 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevy, said the experience was one he would never forget.

"The team was very nice to us," Monoski said. "We got to sit up in the pit box and listen to what they were talking about. They even let us do a couple of pit stops, handing them gas cans. You got to see a lot more than you normally see just watching a race from the stands."

Camp said Team Dover and Dover International Speedway have always had a relationship that benefits both parties.

"Team Dover does a great job of welcoming our customers to the City of Dover," Camp said. "We have a long-standing and mutually beneficial relationship. We are proud of 'our base' and the dedicated men and women stationed there who give us much more each day than we could ever give to them. "