NASCAR-CTS: Porter-Cable Power Tools Racing Team Gets New Crew Chief
21 November 1998
LORAIN, OH -- Liberty Racing team owner Jim Herrick announced today the appointment of Roland Wlodyka as crew chief for the No. 84 Porter-Cable Power Tools Racing team in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series."The Porter-Cable Racing team is excited to have a person of Rolands experience and abilities join us," Herrick said. "He is a proven winner with a track record of success in the truck series. Roland is a veteran crew chief who knows how things should be done and how to teach others to do them well. We firmly believe that, with Roland in charge of our program, we will return to being a top-10 team in 1999."
Wlodyka spent the 1998 season as crew chief for driver Rick Crawford and the Circle Bar Racing team in the truck series. Under Wlodyka, Crawford posted his first career truck series victory in March at Homestead Motorsports Complex, along with four top five finishes and five top tens.
Wlodyka, a 60-year-old native of Boston, Massachusetts, has worked with some of NASCARs top teams, such as Stavola Brothers Racing, Larry Hedrick Motorsports and Osterland Racing, and has tutored such drivers as Dale Earnhardt, Tim Richmond and Jimmy Spencer. During his tenure with Osterland Racing, Wlodyka hired Earnhardt, then an unproven young driver. Earnhardt went on to win the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year Award and the 1980 Winston Cup Series Championship, the first of his seven championships, with Wlodyka.
Porter-Cable Corporation, a subsidiary of Pentair, Inc., is one of the worlds leading manufacturers of portable electric and cordless power tools for the commercial/residential construction, plumbing, electrical and woodworking markets. With its manufacturing operation centralized in Jackson, Tennessee, Porter-Cable also operates a manufacturing facility in Steinheim, Germany, where its products are produced and sold throughout Europe under the FLEX brand name.
