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Rick Carelli
American racing driver and crew chief (born 1954) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Richard Dean Carelli (born November 9, 1954) is an American former race car driver from Arvada, Colorado.[1] He was nicknamed the "High Plains Drifter".[2] He won multiple times in the No. 6 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series truck. He is the spotter for Erik Jones in the NASCAR Cup Series.
 | This article needs to be updated. (February 2025) |
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Racing career
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Carelli won the NASCAR Southwest Tour championship in 1991 and won 21 times in the series during his career.[2] He joined the NASCAR Winston West Series in 1992,[1] and he was named the series Rookie of the Year. He returned to the series in 1993, capturing the series championship and Most Popular Driver award.[1][2] He has won nine times in that series.[2]
He was one of the original drivers in the Craftsman Truck Series, starting at the series' first race at Phoenix in 1995. Carelli raced every series race until he suffered near-fatal injuries when his truck hit the wall during a race at Memphis Motorsports Park in 1999. He suffered a basilar skull fracture, damaged his carotid artery and sinus.[3] He recovered and returned to race the entire 2000 season.[3] He won another race at Richmond International Raceway in 2000 with an underfunded team that he was the crew chief for. He also made 9 Winston Cup starts from 1992 to 1994. He stopped driving in 2004 and moved into the administrative side of motorsport.[3]
After retiring from driving, he later became the team manager for Kevin Harvick Incorporated – a position that he held when Ron Hornaday won the 2007 championship.[2] He later worked with NTS Motorsports as the team general manager.[4] Carelli was also the spotter for the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41, driven by Kurt Busch after first working with him at Furniture Row Racing;[5] FRR's general manager Joe Garone was Carelli's crew chief from 1989 to 1994.[6] He later became Erik Jones' spotter at FRR before following him to Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports.[5][7]
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Awards
Carelli was inducted in the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2009 along with Wayne Spears, Doug George, and Chuck Bown.[8][9]
Motorsports career results
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NASCAR
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
Winston Cup Series
Busch Series
Craftsman Truck Series
Winston West Series
ARCA Re/Max Series
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
24 Hours of Daytona
(key)
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References
External links
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