It was a relatively cool evening at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday, March 21, when the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series field was lined up on pit road for that night’s race.
Meanwhile in the garage, the No. 67 Freedom Racing Enterprises crew sat around their hauler awaiting the pre-race ceremonies. Among them, sitting in a plastic white chair, was an older, tired-looking man. His face was red, and his hands were dirty and calloused.
By looking at him, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell it was two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Jeff Hammond.
At 69 years old, the 43-year racing veteran has not strayed from the sport much. However, he no longer serves as the leader for championship-winning Cup teams like he used to. Nowadays, Hammond has focused his talents to the lower racing series with some of the smaller, lesser-funded organizations.
“I like helping, let’s put it that way,” Hammond told Frontstretch. “Whenever somebody says that they could use some help. Now when I say help, I’m not an engineer by any stretch of the imagination.
“A lot of this technology today is long past me, but it’s still the core of the teamwork. Don’t beat yourself. Our mottos like that are very realistic just like they were back in the ’70s when I got into the sport.”
In 2004, Hammond climbed down from the top of the pit box for good after crew chiefing for one of Darrell Waltrip‘s final Truck Series starts. For 16 years, the legendary team leader stayed within the support often undertaking roles within the media broadcasts of NASCAR. For a time, that was enough to satisfy his racing itch.
“You got to realize that a lot of times I am at the racetrack during that period of time, at 16 years I was still right there on the starting grid,” Hammond said. “I was interviewing drivers or being there and watching what is going on and feeling like an important part of the continuation of a great sport.
“Being a broadcaster is a different role, but at the same time, it’s a very satisfying role. I got to keep my hands kind of into it with the cutaway cars and everything. All that stuff right there was what kept me connected to the sport.”
But then, in 2020 during a round of golf, Truck racer and team owner Clay Greenfield offered him an interesting proposition.
“We’re up at Darrell [Waltrip]’s golf tournament and charity deal up in Nashville, Tenn. late in the season,” Hammond recalled. “[Greenfield] got to talking about, they wanted to do this, they wanted to do that, and Clay said, ‘Come on, Hammond. You need to come out of retirement and crew chief me.'”
Aside from the occasional pit reporter role for broadcast outlets, Hammond had largely been away from the pit box for almost 16 years. While becoming largely popular and successful at his new media role, that burning need for competition had rekindled during his time away from it.
And Greenfield had approached him at just the right time.
“I said, ‘Give me a call. I’ll see what’s going on.'” Hammond said. “I mean it was really that simple. It really was, and that kind of got the fire burning again, and I had some fun there.”
In 2020, during a pandemic-caused splintered racing season, Hammond sat on the pit box for 19 races with Greenfield Motorsports. While not winning races like he used to, Hammond was able to give the team its second-best finish at Talladega Superspeedway later that year.
Yet the lack of grand success didn’t dissuade him. In fact, Hammond was more than content with the occasional top 20.
“Somebody says, ‘How can you be satisfied with 20th place or 21st place?'” Hammond said. “You’ve got to know where you are and how you’re racing and who you’re racing. … For example, look at how many mega teams you’ve got in [the Truck Series].
“So, you’ve really got to structure yourself mentally as well as organizationally wise of realizing what you’re trying to do. We’re not supposed to be up there racing and beating those guys yet. That’s the big operative word: yet.”
During a three-year hiatus, Hammond stepped away from the pit box again. However, during that time he began talking to Paul Boyd, an employee at Hendrick Car Sales in Charlotte, N.C., not far from Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Not long after, Hammond became familiar with Boyd’s son, Spencer Boyd, who so happened to be racing full time in the Truck Series at the time.
The Boyds were working on the possibility of starting their own Truck Series team. It didn’t take long for the crew chief conversation to come up again, and just like it had with Greenfield Motorsports, Hammond obliged.
And he’s enjoyed it ever since.
“The same kind of scenario kind of came up with even the Freedom Racing deal,” Hammond said. “We talked a couple of times, and then Spencer and I talked a couple of times, and it took a couple of years before we ever put everything together to even get going with the creation and the birth of this new organization and the No. 76 truck and kind of the theme of what we are.
“It’s a small group of people trying to take on the big boys and just trying to get better and better and better. It’s been fun. It really has.”
While not full time, Hammond has sat on the pit box for 13 starts with Freedom Racing Enterprises including three in 2025 with Michel Disdier at Homestead and again with Ryan Roulette at both Martinsville Speedway and North Wilkesboro Speedway.
All the while, Hammond has no illusions of pride nor boast, he knows growing FRE will take time. He listens and talks when he needs to.
“It just works,” Hammond said. “I listen. I talk. I try to, in my mind, figure out what they’re asking or what they’re looking for. You’d be surprised a lot of times that, no matter who’s behind the wheel, you give them enough time to let them start talking and start telling you.”
He’s not winning championships like he did with the great Waltrip and Junior Johnson. But in the end, it’s all the same to Hammond. He’s at the racetrack, and that’s all that matters.
“I’ve always told people, the day you don’t see me at a racetrack is because I have lost the luster of hearing, ‘Gentlemen, start your engines,'” Hammond said.
“And that has not gone away.”
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT