Pete Rondeau has loved racing since he was old enough to hold a wrench working on his father’s car. Now he is continuing his passion in a brand new way, with his recent promotion to Director of Competition at Furniture Row Racing.
Rondeau has been affiliated with Furniture Row since 2010, first as the team’s car chief and then as crew chief. He has also worked closely with Furniture Row’s partner Richard Childress Racing.
Rondeau’s new responsibilities will include the building and preparation of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet race car driven by former Series champ Kurt Busch.
“I’ve been working with Furniture Row and RCR and know the ins and outs of the company here,” Rondeau said. “It will be a challenge and I look forward to working with Kurt (Busch, driver) and Todd (Berrier, crew chief), as well as Mark (McArdle, Executive Director of Competition) at RCR.”
“It should make things pretty decent here and we’re looking forward to a good start,” Rondeau continued. “We just keep plugging away and hope that the big things we are working for come through.”
So what exactly will Rondeau be doing in his new role as Director of Competition?
“It’s different from the crew chief side where I’m used to being,” Rondeau explained. “It’s managing the day to day operations at the shop, not only the building of the cars but the scheduling of the cars.”
“And also I will be overseeing the race teams on a daily basis to make sure that Todd gets everything he needs to do his job,” Rondeau continued. “I’ll be working the engineering in so that the race team gets everything they need.”
“I’ll be the overall person that looks over the big blanket of the company and guides things in the direction we need them go.”
Rondeau, a native of Saco, Maine, is also racking up the frequent flier miles in his new role, traveling from the team’s base in Denver, Colorado back and forth to North Carolina.
“My full-time place is in Colorado and then I just go back and forth to the east coast,” Rondeau said. “We have a lot going on at RCR and the communication is pretty fluid.”
“We get free upgrades whenever we travel now.”
Rondeau’s Maine accent has also been a bit puzzling to not only the North Carolina crew but also his new team in Colorado.
“They just weren’t sure where I was from,” Rondeau said with a laugh. “I still get ‘Where are you from, Australia?”
While Rondeau has enjoyed every minute of his racing career, both behind the wheel, under the car and in the management arena, he is most excited about this next challenge in his own racing development.
“This is the next level for someone like myself who has done everything on a race car and other parts of the business,” Rondeau said. “The hard part of the job will be basically steering everyone in the same direction.”
“We have a great group of guys here at Furniture Row,” Rondeau continued. “We’ve come a long way in the past three years.”
“It’s time for us to take it to the next level with the experienced people that we have here.”
Rondeau feels that the sky is the limit for his race team this year. He also sees his strength as understanding the strengths of his fellow team members and playing to them for maximum achievement on the track.
“That was the whole reason coming out here in 2010 was for the possibilities of this team,” Rondeau said. “You can just see that this place was a little gem waiting to shine.”
“We’ve had a victory at Darlington and the company is growing as we speak,” Rondeau continued. “I’m really looking forward to performing at that next level.”
“The racer in us wants to do better each time we go out and that’s what we’re looking forward to.”
“I’ve been behind the wheel, the set up guy, the mechanic on my own stuff,” Rondeau said. “I’ve run the strategies and built all of my own stuff.”
“I owned and drove so I had to take care of my stuff and I’ve had to make budget and figure out how to spend the money,” Rondeau continued. “Being behind the wheel, you learn a lot of patience so that’s how we’ve learned to work through.”
“The key will be to get those strong points to the forefront to perform at the level we need to this year.”
Rondeau is most excited about working with his team’s driver Kurt Busch, especially with the head start with him in the seat in the last few races of 2012.
“The jump we’ve had last year with Kurt in the car for the last few races has been huge for us,” Rondeau said. “We got the basic learning curve out of the way with how Kurt and Todd will communicate and the things we need to get the driver comfortable.”
“ We’ve worked through how we operate and the things we do different from the last team Kurt worked for,” Rondeau continued. “Kurt has a lot of his own ideas on how things should operate so we’re adapting to him and he’s adapting to us.”
“There will still be a little bit more adapting but we’ve been able to get a lot of that out of the way.”
Rondeau has a clear definition of what success will look like with his new driver. And for him, it is all about making the Chase in 2013.
“Success will be that we made the Chase,” Rondeau said. “If you get in the Chase, that’s a pretty big deal.”
“Making the Chase and winning a few races with Kurt will be success,” Rondeau continued. “I’d consider that a successful year for us.”
Rondeau’s other major challenge, as it has been with every team in the sport, is getting the new Gen 6 cars ready for the race season.
“It has been crazy,” Rondeau said. “We’ve tested every time NASCAR has tested the Gen 6 car and we’ve also tested out her in Colorado at Pike’s Peak.”
“It’s been a little bit of a task in building these cars and we’re waiting on some of the parts and pieces and the templates,” Rondeau continued. “But NASCAR has done a good job at getting the things out to us in a timely manner.”
“There are a few things that we’re waiting on right now but they are making sure that they have all details in place,” Rondeau said. “Anytime we have to build new race cars we have a crazy, crazy winter.”
“The fans think that when we stop at Homestead that’s our off-season but unfortunately that’s the busiest time for us, particularly getting ready to go to Daytona,” Rondeau continued. “We’re two weeks from loading and going to Daytona so we’re on seven day weeks, 12 hours per day right now.”
“That’s what it takes to get it done in the best possible way.”
So, is the Director of Competition Pete Rondeau’s dream job? Well, perhaps but just in a whole different way than he ever anticipated.
“I dreamed years ago of driving a race car for a living, but that wasn’t going to happen,” Rondeau said. “So, I moved to North Carolina and continued to move along.”
“This is one of those things that I love doing.”
“There are not too many people in racing that can honestly say that they dislike what they do,” Rondeau said. “They might complain about it but I would hate hate to have go to work for a living.”
“I’m still doing what I love,” Rondeau continued. “And this is what I’ve loved since I was old enough to hold a wrench working on my dad’s car.”
At some point and time,, I would LIKE to see Jerry Robertson Back at Furnature Row Racing!!