Professional NASCAR team member demographics have evolved over the years. For a long period of time it was a southern sport with southern participants. Racers from other areas of the country have relocated to the heart of the NASCAR shops and now crew members’ hometowns are listed from states well outside the typical years-gone-by stereotype.

But in this sport with its rich southern heritage, there are still participants with a rich southern bloodline.  Michael Waltrip Racing can boast of one southern-born mechanic who takes care of not just anyone’s car, but the man whose name is on the sign out front.

West Virginia-native Mike Basham is responsible for the front suspension on the NAPA Toyota in the Sprint Cup Series driven by team owner Michael Waltrip.  Basham spends his weeks preparing multiple combinations of pieces for the MWR Camrys. His knowledge extends to the spindles, hubs, upper and lower control arms, center links and steering boxes.

“Seeing Richard Petty on TV,” was what first attracted him to the sport years ago.  “I was always into racing. We had the rabbit ears and all, but we still got it,” he laughed as he described his younger years and watching early network race broadcasts.

“Bash” as most people know him by stated, “I always wanted to drive. I was a machinist by trade.” So, he made plans to move from Beauty Mountain in his home state to North Carolina.

“I came down and was working for my brother-in-law, he owned a construction business. Well, we were working for a guy named Steve Turly and all I talked about was racing. He said, ‘Bash, I will give you tomorrow off with pay if you go chase your dream. You don’t like this stuff (construction).’ And I was like, ‘You’re right I don’t.’”

“So, I wound up hitting a bunch of shops,” Bash continued, “and I wound up hitting the forty-three.  It was Richard Petty and David Ridling Motorsports.  The eighty-eight Hype car and the forty-three Lance’s car,” he said referring to the sponsors of the two-car then-Busch Series team in 1996. “It was a bunch of beating on doors before I found that, but I found it and that’s how the ball started rolling.”

The Pittsburgh Steelers fan’s driving dreams were not done even though he was finally working on a race team as a suspension mechanic. “I got hooked up with Cook’s Automotive and they put me in their Super Sport at Hickory (Speedway in North Carolina). I knew Casey Cook from working together at the Lance’s car.” Their relationship developed into a late model ride as well.

Following a stint with PPI Motorsports for two season, he explained, “[I] was about to get burned out so I took a break. I took two years off and wasn’t sure if racing was going to be my niche or not. It’s a tough business.”

So, Basham moved back to West Virginia and, “started my own business doing auto repairs. But it wasn’t doing very well.” This was the time period he met his wife Misty. “I just couldn’t make it up there, as bad as I wanted to, so I moved back here (North Carolina).”

Along with his new wife and kids, Trask and Carlie, “Bash” made a second attempt at professional NASCAR racing and went to work at MB2 Motorsports.  In 2005, the team fielded a part-time Sprint Cup entry with Boris Said driving and Frankie Stoddard as the crew chief.

After the team shut down that car near season’s end, Mike returned for his second tour of duty at PPI Motorsports in 2006. Travis Kvapil was behind the wheel of the Tide Chevy. He stayed “until they shut the doors” at year’s end and has been at MWR ever since.

“I am very grateful for some of the decisions I have made,” he added, referring to the turbulent world of NASCAR team workers, many of whom no longer have jobs following the many layoffs during the economy’s downturn.

The admitted outdoorsman loves riding his four-wheeler and “staying in the woods.”

I concluded by asking “Bash” about his career goals. “Driving is what I really wanted to accomplish, but I didn’t have the money. I am happy where I am. I am with a good team and it is like stairs, one step at a time and we are getting there. MWR has come a long way.”