There is no one path towards working on a professional NASCAR team. Some are figuratively born into the sport and are second or third generation mechanics. Others come up through the short track grassroots ranks. There are ones that simply know the right person.

 
Aaron Turrel made his own way to stock car racing’s upper levels as a mechanic and he possesses a business degree. No, there is not one path and Turrel is not from one place either. His hometown is… all over.

The mechanic for Germain Racing’s Nationwide Series entry with Michael Annett at the controls describes his childhood as bouncing around “a lot.”

“My dad was a professional businessman, so when a company was in trouble they hired him to come get them out of trouble.” Mark, his business consultant father, moved the family around often, “Mostly west coast.” Among the towns he caught a glimpse of while growing up were Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks in California, Las Vegas, and St. George, Utah.

Dixie State College in St. George is where Turrel obtained his business degree. “Imagine that?” he said with a laugh.

“My Uncle Phil Erekson, who now lives in Las Vegas, won a bunch of races out on the west coast and Utah. He drag raced and raced circle track too.” Turrel continued as we spoke of his introduction to motorsports. My dad was one of the mechanics on his race car. So I come from a mechanically inclined family. So I just grew up in it.”

Turrel recalled “going for rides in racecars” as a kid. “Sit on the floor, hang onto the roll cage and run around for a few laps. That’s where it (racing interest) really started for me.”

“Went in to high school, didn’t have any race tracks around and because I moved around so much it was tough to get with any racing team. So I built some go karts just to have fun around the house. Then I started motorcycle racing, just amateur stuff. Then I started building street racers,” he stated with another chuckle.

“We built Toyotas, Nissans, never took a class just learned it all from my dad and my uncle,” he explained. I asked if they were the type from the Fast and the Furious movies. “By the time that movie came out I had built eight cars. We raced for pink slips, we raced for money, and I won two cars.” Other vehicles that he worked on for friends were also winning.

He also constructed dune buggies and rock crawlers. “I had a truck in high school that I swear could crawl up a brick wall.”

The path to North Carolina started in Las Vegas. Aaron began racing at the bullring alongside the 1.5 mile superspeedway. “I started in the bomber class and moved to late models,” said Turrel. “I was working three jobs just to pay for my cars.” When he came to the conclusion, “There has got to be a better way. I helped my dad run his hotrod shop, worked on everything else for everybody else and never got to enjoy it as much as I should.”

He continued, “I got a hold of John Dodson and he was working for the NASCAR Technical Institute.” Dodson persuaded Terrel to attend NTI. Dodson told him “you just move out here (North Carolina) I can’t guarantee you anything.” So he “went through the entire course, 4.0 student, 100% attendance. Easy for me really.”

“When I was in the school I worked for an ARCA team and a late model team, so I was staying racing and going to school at the same time.”

“The week I was graduating,” Turrel went on, “Robert Yates called me, said he wanted me to come for work for him.”

In 2004 he “started as a general mechanic and helped with the truck turn around. Then they moved me to building interiors for Elliott Sadler, Dale Jarrett and Matt McCall.” The three drivers shared Yates’ Busch Series number ninety with CitiFinancial backing.

Described as his “hardest time” in racing, “…because it was hectic. On Monday I could be setting up a car for Dale Jarrett and on Tuesday be ripping the seat out of it because they were putting Matt McCall in it. And the car had to leave on Wednesday. That was hard and it was never the same car. You would build a car for one driver and the next week another car and another driver would be thrown at you and have to start from scratch.”

His engine experience in his younger days earned him the engine tuner position when Stephen Leicht took over the ride’s full time driving duties.

Following the 2007 season Yates’ Busch Series team was sold to Germain Racing and was campaigned in 2008 in the now called Nationwide Series under the GEICO sponsorship with Mike Wallace driving. The number ninety became the number seven.  For 2009 Annett is the driver with Pilot Travel Centers and Hype Energy Drink as new sponsors. The car number has swapped again to number fifteen. Turrel has been with the team throughout all of the changes.

Still juggling several responsibilities he looks after Annett’s car interior, is a suspension mechanic, and has engine tuning demands as well.

On weekends Aaron works every Nationwide Series event, from helping the NASCAR officials inspect his driver’s safety equipment, to making suspension changes during practice runs, to handling the fuel catch can on pit stops.

Working with several drivers over the past few years he is impressed with his current teammate. “Michael is different, which I like. He comes to the shop almost every day, hangs out with us at the track and will just call to see what we are up to.”

As a driver, Turrel is impressed by him too. “We wrecked in qualifying at California, took a car out he never practiced in, never seen really, and we finished sixteenth. Hey you can’t beat that,” he described confidently. ”We went to Vegas with the same car and ran really well.” An accident with a lapped car ended their day before the checkered flag waved however.

Aaron greatly enjoys the sport and is planning to stay in it for the future. The drum player wants to build a transmission dyno. “I’ve rebuilt a few transmissions and there is no real way to test them until you put them in a car, and that’s kind of scary. I am looking to build a small model so when a transmission is rebuilt you can test if it shifts and there no leaks and you can call it good.”

He lives with his girlfriend Stacey and in addition to NASCAR racing he is a big NHRA fan following the likes of Greg Anderson and Warren Johnson. Growing up watching major league stock car racing, Mark Martin was his favorite driver. “I’ve met him a few times and he is very personable and I like his driving style.”

Our lunchtime interview finished with discussions about his future goals, both career and personal. They were combined into one answer. “I want to start a family. That is not there yet. I want to have a kid then start him in racing,” he concluded with a laugh.