CONCORD, N.C. -- More than 600 team members work at Hendrick Motorsports, and each of them has a unique role that helps contribute to success on the racetrack.
In this series, HendrickMotorsports.com will take an in-depth look at how team members execute those jobs on a daily basis, detailing their workspaces, routines and more.
This time, traveling network administrator Brian Walsh shares "How I Work."
Computer:
Microsoft Surface laptop and Surface Book
Current mobile device:
iPhone X
One word that best describes how you work:
“I’ve been told 'intense.' When I get to work, I’m kind of focused. Outside of work I’m pretty chill. At work I’m in my element and in my zone, so, I would say somewhat intense. Not purposely.”
Take us through a recent workday:
“Pretty much every day I get up around 5 a.m. If I’m back here on campus, it’s because my kids get up and I have to take them to school. Recently I got up around 5 a.m., the test haulers were back from the Indy test, so I was redoing the lounge because at the test that has to be a functioning hauler where the engineers can go inside and use their laptops, have net connectivity, can access their Microsoft Teams, OneNote, Outlook and everything from there to communicate. We're getting prepared for the weekend, so I'm re-running the cables from the reels. That’s pretty much my morning. I’ve got a meeting at 10:30 a.m. to work on radios for the pit departments, seeing if we can fix some glitches in there. Typically, I’ll work out during lunch. I’ll come back from that, and a lot of times I’ll have another meeting typically on Tuesdays with the pit department to see if there is anything we need. The rest of the day is just making sure we have all the accessories, any adapters or anything. Once I’m gone on the plane, there’s no going back.”
Apps/gadgets/tools you can’t live without:
“Microsoft Teams and text messaging. Everyone has my cell phone number, or they look me up on Teams, so it blows up all day long. We deal big time on Microsoft here. So, I've got my Outlook, Teams, OneNote -- we've got a lot of stuff in OneNote. I create a lot of the track notes in OneNote. So, say I take the weekend off and someone fills in for us, all my procedures that I do on a daily basis are in OneNote. They can come in here and pick up flawlessly what I am doing. I also have some IT apps on my phone for ping tests and network connectivity and things like that.”
Workspace setup:
"I’m very mobile. Everything I have on my laptop I have in apps on my phone. With the Microsoft products, I work hand-in-hand with that. I take calls through Teams on my phone. At my desk I have my Surface Book that is typically there with a Surface docking station and two monitors. I can handle everything I need to there. I have a telephone and then I have a headset because we use Teams for our calls."
How you keep track of what you have to do:
“Notes. I use OneNote a lot, actually, Microsoft has a to-do list and I use that. It’s nice, because I can go and add things onto there but if I don’t finish, I can just move it to the next day. If I do finish it, I just click the box and it takes it off. We also have Planner, which is another app you can use. Most of mine is either Teams, OneNote or the to-do list.”
How you got your start at Hendrick Motorsports:
“I had a single mother with five kids, I wound up getting into the Marine Corps for a couple of years then I went back to school and worked for a doctor’s office for about six years. Then, someone at Hendrick Motorsports asked me if I would ever be interested in working here for the race team and I said I would absolutely consider it. The rest is history.”
Best advice you have ever received:
“My Gunnery Sgt. said, 'Leaders can earn respect, but they can never demand respect.' So, that taught me that just by doing work, being a good worker, learning as much as I can, people will actually look to you and want to follow you, instead of being one of those people that just forces people to follow you. No one really wants to follow that person.”
Mentor or influential person in your life:
“My mom. She was a single mother with five kids and kind of had the world thrown at her and overcame it all. Now she has five successful kids who are doing their thing.”
Favorite thing about working at Hendrick Motorsports:
“The people, the atmosphere. You walk through campus and everyone says hi and talks to you. Everyone will say hey and honestly care about you. I can go work out on lunches, and Wednesdays I can go to the fellowship lunch. I don’t know anywhere else I could work and get this type of environment.”
Something people may not know about working for a race team:
“I’m a good example of that. I really didn’t know anything about racing. I knew about racing, but I was never, I guess you could say, a fan, just because I didn’t know anything about it. But once I got involved, I had no idea the technology that was involved here. I had no idea about the data transfer or the size and scope of the personnel. You have an enterprise environment here, a lot of data, very fast that I would have never expected in a typical sports team.”
Music you listen to while you work:
“I’ll listen to music throughout my workday, definitely in the gym I've got my motivation playlist. I’ll listen to some podcasts but mostly music. I listen to everything. I've got classic rock, country, hip-hop, R&B, Christian contemporary, I’m kind of all over there. I like oldies -- I have an oldies remix. I blame my mom for that.”
Who else you would like to see answer these questions:
“I’d like to see (No. 9 team crew chief) Alan Gustafson answer them. I think that would be interesting.”