Really fast food

When NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Race rolls into Infineon, the raceway teems with a swaggering, heart-pounding, ear-splitting, fender-banging atmosphere. But heavy duty, home-style cooking is also under way here. In the northeast corner of the NASCAR garage, pushed up against the chain link fence and nestled between car haulers, Ken Enck and a dozen volunteers are gearing up to feed thousands of people on NASCAR racing teams for the next three days at the race track.
    teve Page, Infineon’s president and general manager, says, “This race is the biggest thing we do. It’s the defining event for Infineon because NASCAR is so huge. It draws the biggest crowd and tests every system and resource we have. It also gives us the most exposure in the market. And what those folks do in the NASCAR kitchen is phenomenal.”
    Enck, NASCAR’s executive chef, says he started cooking for one racing team—NASCAR car owner Bud Moore—in 1994. “I’ve owned a catering business for 27 years, one of the largest in central Pennsylvania. I started doing hospitality at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania. I looked across the lot at the guys in the garage and knew I wanted to be in there cooking. I hooked up with a couple of racing teams and the business grew each year. Today we feed 39 of the 43 teams. That’s breakfast and lunch for more than 3,500 people. I like to say that NASCAR has the Car of Tomorrow and we’re the Caterer of Tomorrow. We fuel ‘em.”
    Weber Summit grills line the fence, along with casket-size UPS freezer boxes filled with tri-tips, filet mignon, slabs of ribs and smoked pork tenderloins. The kitchen crew tends ribs, burgers, meatballs, Johnsonville brats and sausages on the grills. There’s a 20-foot-long fruit and vegetable salad bar down the center of the kitchen and ten turkeys sizzle away in deep fryers. There’s a cook-top grill, customized by Weber for the NASCAR kitchen, that cranks out side dishes: Bush’s Baked Beans, Tater Tots, lima beans, corn, macaroni and cheese, lasagna and the ever-present Hamburger Helper. Another table is loaded with desserts: a pumpkin cake roll, German chocolate cake, cheesecake, pineapple upside-down cake, cranberry and banana breads, blueberry and apple cobblers, pecan, apple, pumpkin and cherry pies, and pick-up cookies. Crates of fruits and vegetables are stacked everywhere. Drivers and pit crews come in empty-handed and leave with plates piled high with food. Hugs are shared in celebration of Jeff Gordon’s new baby girl. Here in the NASCAR kitchen in the garage at Infineon Raceway, America’s new legends—NASCAR drivers and their superstar roadies—eat on the run.
    Enck says he has ten to twelve people cooking for each of the three dozen races on the circuit. “They’re all volunteers. I like to hire people I meet along the garage fence where we cook. That’s how I meet people at NASCAR.” He hired Sam and Debbie Powers of Morada (near Stockton) ‘off the fence’. “The Powers line up our kitchen crews for the West Coast races.” They met Enck at Infineon four years ago and volunteered, so Enck brought them on board. As Debbie says, “You get a whole different perspective being inside the NASCAR garage.” Debbie also baked three pumpkin cake rolls for the dessert table. “Whenever we work at a nearby track, I try to bake homemade desserts—stuff the guys don’t usually get. This pumpkin cake roll freezes and travels really well.” 
    Terri McClellan drove from Fresno to cook during the race. “A few years ago at a race I walked by Kenny’s kitchen and thought, ‘This would be so much fun.’ And it is.” McClellan graduated from the Culinary Institute of America last February and is head chef for Delta Zeta Sorority at Fresno State. “This is the best of both of my worlds—cooking and NASCAR. It just doesn’t get any better than that! And you really feel like you’re part of the NASCAR family.”
    Dana Eads of Strasburg, Colorado, is an aircraft maintenance supervisor for United Airlines in Denver where she supervises 335 mechanics. She volunteered for the kitchen crew when she met Enck at a race in Phoenix three years ago. “I do it for the excitement and to meet people. What gives me the most pleasure is being recognized for what I do. At Daytona, driver Ryan Neuman raved about my ribs. This past weekend Ricky Rudd complimented me on my filet mignon. These guys come over individually to thank you. That’s what makes me happy.”
    Danny Duane works as fire marshal at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in York County, Pennsylvania. He uses his six weeks of vacation to volunteer in the kitchen. “We do it to have fun. Everybody here loves NASCAR and it’s a great way to get on the inside.” Lyndell Shuey, who works as a paramedic in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, also volunteers because he loves racing and meeting people. “We’re all lucky to have jobs that let us travel and cook for NASCAR. I’ve made so many friends doing this over the past four years.”

John Zuzu, Steve Page and Ken Enck with the NASCAR kitchen crew.

    NASCAR fans are considered the most brand-loyal in all of sports. As a result, Fortune 500 companies sponsor NASCAR more than any other sport. The kitchen crews’ uniforms testify to that, sporting corporate logos galore: UPS, Uncle Ben’s Rice, Swift Premium Meats, Mrs. Smith’s, Peter Piper Pickles, Pilgrims Pride, Rubbermaid, Trident Seafoods, Coca-Cola, Roseda Beef, Mississippi BBQ Sauce, Hatfield Meats, Simplot Foods, Diamond Products and more. As Enck explains, “I saw how the racing teams got sponsorships... I started by approaching Weber. Our kitchen is like a grill demo every weekend. We really put their grills through their paces. Then Swift came on board. Then Pilgrim’s Pride. Everything has mushroomed for us sponsor-wise. The volunteers and sponsors are so important to the program. If I didn’t have sponsorships, we couldn’t afford to eat so well.”
    Enck says that there are two things he always serves at NASCAR. “You’re not going to believe this—Hamburger Helper. We don’t make it by the box directions. We add a lot of onions and fresh vegetables. That and steaks. We’ll go through 180 pounds of filet mignon this weekend. It’s unreal. These boys love their steaks.”  While racing teams all eat from the same buffet, Enck says, “We cook specialty items for drivers. Jeff Gordon likes salmon and vegetables before he races. Ricky Rudd likes teriyaki chicken. Richard Petty likes a plain hot dog. No bun, no nothin’.”
In the middle of lunch, news spreads through the kitchen that Vallejo native Jeff Gordon and fellow Californian Jimmie Johnson have been banned from on-track activity because the front fenders of their Chevies failed inspection. Richard Petty saunters by their Hendrick Motorsports cars, sitting in adjacent garage stalls, hoods up. No practice or qualifying for Gordon or Johnson today, forcing both drivers to start from the rear of the grid. From out on the Infineon track—one of only two road courses in NASCAR’s circuit—comes the tire-squealing, ear-shattering howl of stock cars qualifying for position in Sunday’s race.
    The defining moment of the race comes with just seven laps to go when Juan Pablo Montoya makes a pass on Turn 2 to take the lead and wind up in the winner’s circle for his first NASCAR cup win. Meanwhile, the NASCAR kitchen crew is packing up. And Ken Enck is thinking about how his crew will cook the 300 lobsters and 180 pounds of diver scallops that will be waiting for them on Friday at NASCAR’s next race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Photographed by Mike Dolan.

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