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Todd Gordon \u201993<\/b><\/p>\n
Need for NASCAR<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> By\u00a0Sara Ann Hutto \u201917<\/b> Gordon turned his passion for racing into a career through a seemingly modest opportunity<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Todd Gordon\u2019s first job in NASCAR, on the Phil Parsons Racing team, wasn\u2019t fabricator or mechanic or engineer. It was floor sweeper. Todd Gordon turned his passion for racing into a career through a seemingly modest opportunity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":23352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[1900,2026,3360],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-23332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","category-my-clemson","tag-mechanical-engineering","tag-nascar","tag-winter-2021-alumni-profile"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/Todd-Gordon-Thumbnail.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23332"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nPhotography by Nigel Kinrade Photography<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/p>\n
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\n\u201cWhen I interviewed with Phil, I told him all the things I thought I could do to help him,\u201d Gordon says. \u201cHe asked me if a broom fit my hand, and I said, \u2018Sure. Let\u2019s go to work.\u2019\u201d
\nGordon had recently moved to Hickory, North Carolina, coming from a mechanical engineering job in New York, where he spent weekdays designing zero-turn lawn mowers for Ferris Industries. Weeknights were spent in the shop \u2014 late nights fine-tuning his racecar \u2014 and weekends were spent late-model racing. Gordon\u2019s wife inspired the career change when she asked him, \u201cWhy work and race? Why not work in racing?\u201d
\nAt Phil Parsons Racing, Gordon quickly learned how to work in almost every position on the small team, whether that was making bodies and fitting windows as a fabricator, assembling cars as a mechanic, or engineering. But that was only the beginning. Fast forward, and Gordon has just finished his first year as the crew chief for Penske\u2019s Ryan Blaney, after a seven-year stint \u2014 including a NASCAR Series Cup Championship in 2018 \u2014 as Joey Logano\u2019s crew chief.
\nGordon compares being a crew chief to being a head football coach; on race days, he is responsible for almost everyone on the team, including the car chief and mechanics, the engineers, the pit crew, and the driver. But the most important part of his job, he says, is strategy: \u201cThe biggest challenge of calling a good race is anticipating not only what you want to do but what the others are going to do. So if you have a caution come out and you\u2019ve got 10 laps on tires, staying out works if you\u2019re going to be at the front of the line and four or five cars stay out with you. But if you\u2019re the only guy to stay out and everybody comes to get tires, you\u2019re at a disadvantage.\u201d
\nAt the end of the season, Gordon, Blaney and their team celebrated a competitive year and a major win at Talladega Superspeedway in June, hopefully the first of many. \u201cHe\u2019s got a lot of runway ahead of him,\u201d Gordon says of Blaney. \u201cTons of talent, tons of speed. I look for opportunities to develop his raw talent and let the game slow down for him. It\u2019s been fun to watch that.\u201d
\nNext year, Gordon is looking forward to more one-on-one time with Blaney, something that has been a real challenge this year due to COVID-19. Drivers aren\u2019t allowed in the shop, and protocols have been taken very seriously on the racetrack. \u201cI think NASCAR\u2019s done a really good job of returning to racing and not putting us in a terrible position,\u201d Gordon says. \u201cBut that makes it challenging to learn a new guy and guide a new guy. Texting is one level, calling another. But face-to-face is a third yet.\u201d
\nLooking back, Gordon knows he couldn\u2019t have become a winning crew chief without taking that broom from Phil Parsons so many years ago.
\nHis advice? \u201cNever think something\u2019s beneath you. Always take the opportunity and see what you can make of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>