By Tom Joyce tjoyce@mtairynews.com
A sport that involves circling racetracks at 200 mph while measuring success in nanoseconds requires lots of moving parts other than car and driver, and a Surry County resident has had a hand in many of those.
“Ever since I was little, that’s all I could think about was race cars,” David Cropps said in discussing his 20-year career in NASCAR, which now involves working at Richard Petty Motorsports headed by “The King” of stock car racing.
“My main job is front-end mechanic,” Cropps, 42, of Mount Airy, said regarding his present position with the Petty organization, where he has been employed for a total of 13 years. It’s one of various racing teams he has served with over the past two decades, encompassing all three top rungs of NASCAR the Cup, Xfinity (formerly Busch) and truck series.