Every Veterans Day is an opportunity to pay respect to the men and women who served in the military to protect the United States of America.
In motorsports, the close relationship shared with the military stretches far beyond pre-race festivities that include the singing of the national anthem. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find a crew member on a team in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES who served.
In the case of Team Penske, Colin Davis, Blaine Hardy and John Haslett are among those who transitioned from their respective service branches into racing.
Davis, the mechanic and fueler on the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet for Scott McLaughlin, joined the Army in 2012 and served four years as a machine gunner in the infantry. He held the rank of specialist at the conclusion of his term and then pursued a career in racing.
“I did have an in between, so actually the whole thing was me and two of my other best friends I had in the Army, the whole idea was to get out of the Army and get into racing,” said Davis, an Ohio native.
There was a “gap year” until all three were reunited in 2017 at NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville, North Carolina.
“We graduated in April of 2018,” Davis said. “Then I volunteered with Jennifer Jo Cobb for a little while – they’re a (NASCAR) Truck Series team – and then I started helping hang bodies for Young’s Motorsports and then got with Penske in May of 2019.”
It became a dream start as Davis was assigned as a mechanic to Simon Pagenaud’s car at the time, part of the team that swept the Month of May with victories on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course followed by the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
“That was pretty nuts,” Davis said. “To go from hanging bodies at Young’s Motorsports to Penske and then winning the biggest race in the world was pretty ridiculous, and I didn’t see it coming.”
Hardy, a mechanic who also handles air jack duties on the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet driven by Will Power, was in the Marine Corps Reserves from 2006 to 2012. Hardy was a corporal by the conclusion of his term, with his primary duties handling logistics and embarkation.
Like Davis, Hardy also enrolled in the NASCAR Technical Institute after his time in the military.
“Racing was involved in my childhood, something I did Saturday nights back home,” Hardy said. “I went into the Marine Corps straight out of high school thinking that’s the path I wanted to take. Turned out that’s not exactly what I wanted to do, so I went reserve and I went to school.
“I did a few years of regular college and then after that I decided … initially I wanted to be an engineer. I wanted to work my hands. I knew I liked that kind of thing. Turns out I didn’t want to sit behind a desk, and typical college wasn’t for me. So, I worked in a machine shop most of my younger years. That was one of my first jobs.
“My dad worked there. He was a shop foreman, so I was very familiar with that kind of thing. Then I found out about NASCAR Tech (NTI), and I also went there. They actually got me in touch with Penske, and that’s how I started out. I wanted to build engines on the NASCAR side and I got my foot in the door in the parts room of the INDYCAR team, and it just went from there. I did a year and a half in the parts room and then I wanted to go on the road to do pits, so I transferred to the truck department. I worked as a truck driver, and I did pit stops for a few years. And then in 2018, I decided I wanted to be involved a little bit more and I moved over to the mechanic side of things. I’ve been a mechanic since 2018.”
And success came with it as Hardy was part of Power’s remarkable win in the 2018 edition of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
“I think it was Oriol Servia that was in front of us,” Hardy said, recalling the final laps. “We came off (Turn) 4 and only had a few more laps to pass him, and he dives off into the pit lane. From…
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