Posted: February-26-2010 at 11:48am | IP Logged

Jake Elder Passes Away

Former Cup Series crew chief J.C. "Jake" Elder passed away on Wednesday at Autumn Care, an assisted living facility in Statesville, North Carolina.  He was 73 years old.  Elder was a longtime crew chief in the Cup Series from the early days of the sport up until the early 1990's.

Elder was known to have a very keen eye for setting up a race car, despite a very limited amount of education.  He was also extremely sure of his skills, essentially asking his crewmembers and drivers not to question him.

However, these traits are one of the likely causes for another one of Jake's characteristics, the constant shuffling from team to team.  Elder rarely stayed with one team for more than a year or two at a time, often times resigning on his own accord to try something new.  This constant moving about in a quasi-nomadic fashion led him to be dubbed "Suitcase Jake."

As it stands, the drivers that Elder worked with during his career are effectively a Who's Who of NASCAR history.  Elder started out with Petty Enterprises in the early 1960's as a fabricator working with Richard Petty.  By the end of the 1960's, he was a championship-winning crew chief for Holman-Moody's No. 17 Ford Torinos and driver David Pearson.  Elder worked with Darrell Waltrip during the early years of his Cup career, and with Dale Earnhardt for a little under a year and a half, leaving the Osterland Racing No. 2 team in the middle of Earnhardt's first championship season.

The 1980's saw a stint at Hagan Racing, where Elder worked with Terry Labonte and Sterling Marlin.  Eventually, Elder gravitated to Robert Yates Racing and was crew chief for star racer Davey Allison.  Unfortunately, Elder and Allison didn't communicate well and Elder was dropped in favor of King Racing's Larry McReynolds early in 1991.

Elder suffered a stroke in 2006 and was under constant medical care from his sister and health aides for the last couple of years of his life.  Elder is survived by his son Andy, daughter Sandy, two brothers, four sisters, three grandchildren and one great-grandson.  He was preceded in death by his wife Debbie, his son Randy Lee, one sister and two brothers.

Funeral Services will be held at Bunch-Johnson Funeral Home in Statesville, North Carolina at 2:00pm Saturday.  Condolences can be sent to the Elder family via Bunch-Johnson Funeral Home's website, bunchjohnsonfuneralhome.com.

(courtesy of FrontStretch.com)

Posted: February-26-2010 at 11:51am | IP Logged

NASCAR released the following statement on the passing of Jake Elder. -- J.C. “Suitcase Jake” Elder was one the first crew chiefs in NASCAR to achieve celebrity status with our fans. He was a pioneer in that regard, and his celebrity was well-deserved. He was truly one of the greatest crew chiefs of all-time, winning two championships with David Pearson. Our sport has lost one of its legends, with his passing.  ...Daily Headlines