Larry Carter

Larry Carter’s passion for cars and racing began at the young age of 14, when he began visiting local dirt tracks in North Carolina. Carter didn’t realize in the early days he would become one of NASCAR’s top crew chiefs. Carter has worked with some the finest drivers in NASCAR history – Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, Rick Mast, Jimmy Spencer, Todd Bodine and others. Today, Carter leads the crew of the No. 26 IRWIN Industrial Tools Ford Fusion, piloted by Jamie McMurray.

Carter has been a North Carolina boy his entire life. Born in Raleigh, N.C., he attended Garner Senior High School before being accepted into North Carolina State University. A proud “Wolfpack” fan, he graduated in 1983 and began working for the Wake County School System as the lead superintendent for the school grounds in the district. Carter had set his dreams on becoming a golf course superintendent, but quickly moved on to open a grading business.

During his teenage years, Carter began attending races with a buddy. Each weekend, the two would visit the local North Carolina dirt tracks to work on racecars and quickly learned their way around a track.

After deciding that “pushing dirt” wasn’t for him, Carter got his start in the NASCAR industry. In 1986, Carter began spotting and working around the garage part time for NASCAR driver Rick Mast. The following year, Carter moved into a full-time position with driver Butch Miller, where he started as a general mechanic and fabricator on the No. 08 Chevrolet.

Over the next 13 years, Carter worked as a tire specialist, shock specialist, data acquisition engineer and car chief. “I’ve had and done about every job in the garage,” he said.

Carter got his start as a NASCAR Cup crew chief in 2000, for Darrell Waltrip, who was in his last year of racing. After working with Waltrip, Carter moved over to work with Todd Bodine for two years and then onto Tony Raines.

In 2005, Carter had the privilege to work with NASCAR legend Rusty Wallace in his final year of stock car racing. Carter and Wallace got their first win together in April 2005 at Martinsville Speedway. Wallace went on to make the “Chase for the Nextel Cup,” and finished ninth that season.

In 2007, Larry Carter teamed up with Roush Fenway Racing driver Jamie McMurray. The duo compiled three top fives and nine top-10 finishes. The highlight of the 2007 season came at Daytona International Speedway in July, when McMurray edged out Kyle Busch by .005 seconds to score his second NEXTEL Cup victory. The team also added one NEXTEL Cup pole award to their stats in 2007.

Both McMurray and Carter have the same goal for the 2008 season – putting McMurray back in contention to win the Sprint Cup Championship.