Building Race Cars in 'The Center of the Universe'

PRESCOTT – "I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world. I don't know how I ended up where I did, but I sure am glad," said NASCAR race car builder and crew chief, Chuck Carruthers.

After 40 years in the industry, Carruthers is more than satisfied with life in Prescott, also known as "The Center of the Universe" on his business attire, website, and even the company car.

Carruthers began building cars on the side, while attending Cal Poly Pomona College as a mechanical engineering major in the early 1970s.

"When I was in college, a friend and I thought we could build race cars and we weren't smart enough to know that you really had to know something to do it," Carruthers said. He and Bob Burchard built "a pretty good business" working out of Burchard's father's machine shop.

In 1975, Carruthers left school to run the Armstrong Motor Sports race team out of Modesto, Calif. He spent three years as crew chief on the nine-man team, which built all their own cars, before going to work for a chassis builder in Modesto. In 1985, he and a partner opened their own shop in Winters, Calif., where he stayed until 1991.

Carruthers said he ended up in Prescott because he "didn't read a contract really well." He went into a meeting planning to buy out his partner, but the meeting ended with him being bought out instead. That same contract included a non-compete clause that prevented him from building cars in California, Oregon, Idaho or Nevada. "Everything but Washington," he said.

Carruthers purchased his current shop in Prescott, a former McGregor Company building in 1991 and has been here ever since. Having grown up in Seatonville, Ill. (his family moved to Fontana, Calif. midway through his senior year of high school) with a population of 400, Carruthers felt right at home with small town life.

Chuck Carruthers Industries serves a core group of about 60 customers that Carruthers says he tries to be personally available to test and race with. Customers order cars in all stages, from parts, to a body mounted on a chassis, to a complete car with Carruthers overseeing its first race on the track.

Carruthers' cars won NASCAR Regional Touring Series championships in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The cars were owned by recently deceased Mesa, Wash. grape farmer Rick Allison, who Carruthers calls "one of the best car owners you could ever have." Jeff Jefferson drove the cars for the team, that ran out of Carruthers' shop.

"They were tremendously successful. Those opportunities (ample financing and a talented driver) don't come along all the time. Sometimes when you're in the middle of it, you don't have time to think of how much fun you're having," Carruthers said.

After 40 years in the business, Carruthers still loves what he does. "In the racing industry there is always something new, always something to think about, always something you're working on. That part is way cool," he said.

"Anyone who works in the racing industry is competitive. Races are hard to win. I liken it to when you're in high school and you take a test on Friday, but only one person gets to pass. Finishing second is better than finishing third, but the guy that wins is really the only one," he said.

Carruthers says has seen the racing industry through the 70's oil embargo, where he sat at his desk wishing the phone would ring, and the 1980's recession. "I survived through all of that. I kid everyone that I just outlived everybody else," he said.

"I have literally built race cars for people, built race cars for their sons and built race cars for their grandkids. That's pretty neat."

Carruthers chalks his long-term success up to two important lessons he learned from his parents. "You have to be honest and you have to work hard. After that, it just came," he said.

"Racing is always evolving. We do a tremendous amount of research and development. The more you do, the more you stay ahead of the curve. But that just goes back to working hard," he added.

Over the years, Carruthers has traveled the country as crew chief for several teams and he and NASCAR broadcaster Larry McReynolds spent many years giving racing workshops all along the west coast. But these days he considers travel the worst part of the job.

Carruthers said his wife, Danielle, who he insists is "the real story," has it the worst. As a technical inspector for NASCAR's Camping World, Xfinity and Sprint Cup series, Danielle is gone Thursday through Monday, 36 weeks of the year. The two met on the race circuit when she was living in San Diego, and were married in 1999.

"Danielle's story is much more fascinating than mine," Carruthers said. "She was the very first female ever hired by NASCAR. When I started in the racing business in the 1970's there were signs when you went into the garage area – 'No Women.' My wife was the first one that ever broke through that," he said.

Carruthers recalled the late 70's and early 80's when he would travel to Australia every year and race from Boxing Day until the first of April. "It was a blast – the most fun you could ever have," Carruthers said. "But the older you get, the more you want to just go home and sit on the porch – and I never thought I would be that way," he added.

Today, that "porch" is 10 miles outside Prescott and sits on 30 acres of countryside where he and Danielle enjoy spending evenings with their horses, cows and dogs. "There's nothing more relaxing than saddling up a horse and going for a ride," Carruthers said.

Well, there might be one thing more relaxing. And that would be spending time at the home the Carruthers' recently purchased on the island of Montserrat in the West Indies. At 63, Carruthers is moving toward retirement and hopes to start spending his winters there.

"This is a great place to live but I hate the winters. If I left right after we finished the Thanksgiving dinner dishes and didn't come back until the first of May, it wouldn't bother me a bit," Carruthers said.

But Carruthers has planted deep roots and has no plans for leaving the area permanently. He is currently chairman of the Walla Walla County Planning Commission, served as Prescott's mayor from 1996 to 2000, has served on the Prescott Joint Parks & Rec. board and the school board and is a volunteer for the city fire department.

Carruthers says giving back to the community is another lesson he learned growing up in Seatonville, Ill. "My dad was mayor and fire chief, my uncle was mayor; that's just a normal part of what you did. If you lived there, you were part of the town," he said.

"A guy like me, in the race car business, in the scheme of things it doesn't amount to anything. It's entertainment. I don't ever take myself too seriously. I often thought that being on the Prescott School Board was more important than building race cars. You just don't want to take yourself too seriously," Carruthers said.