From Staten Island To NASCAR, Joe Karasinski Is A Battler

From Staten Island To NASCAR, Joe Karasinski Is A Battler

No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Gas Man Beats Cancer, Bids For Championship

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Nov. 14 , 2011) — Helping beat 42 other teams off a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pit road is tough enough.

Beating cancer is even tougher.

Joe Karasinski, gas man for the No. 99 Ford of Carl Edwards, has done both. The 39-year-old Staten Island, N.Y. native (and Spotswood, N.J. resident) is a member of the fourth quarter 2011 Mechanix Wear Most Valuable Pit Crew under crew chief Bob Osborne. The award goes to a Roush Fenway Racing team for the second consecutive quarter following the No. 17 Ford of Matt Kenseth and crew chief Jimmy Fennig.

The No. 99 team is comprised of Karasinski, rear tire carrier Jody Fortson, China Grove, N.C.; rear tire changer Dwayne Ogles, Hoover, Ala.; jackman Dennis Killian, Wentzville, Mo.; front tire carrier Alan Troutman, China Grove, N.C.; front tire changer Kale Uphoff, McFarland, Wis. and pit crew coach Andy Ward,Kannapolis, N.C.

Karasinski, who’ll celebrate 10 years with Roush Fenway Racing next month, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in early 2008 – an illness that also afflicted his mother. “I felt run down and didn’t have much energy,” said Karasinski, a onetime high school shot putter. The diagnosis “wasn’t what I wanted to hear but the doctor told me if you’re going to have cancer, ‘this is the one to have – we can fix it.’”

Surgeons removed Karasinski’s thyroid and 68 lymph nodes followed by radiation treatments. The process put the crew member on the shelf for 2-1/2 months. Annual screenings have confirmed his cancer is in remission.

Karasinski returned to the team at the 2008 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and has been on pit road since. He was part of Kurt Busch’s 2004 championship team, a front suspension specialist, before joining the No. 99 team in 2002.

“I was with the 97 (Busch) at the time and they needed a gas man. A guy twisted his knee and I filled in for him,” said Karasinski, who became a NASCAR fan as a young boy during visits with his father to Wall Stadium in New Jersey. After working on a General Motors assembly line, as a tow truck driver and at a car dealership, he moved south in 1998 without a guarantee of a job. “It was a dream and a lot of my friends told me, ‘as a northerner, you’ll never make it in the south,’” Karasinski said. They obviously were wrong – which Karasinski likes to point out when he visits the old neighborhood.

Karasinski is the oldest member of the fourth quarter Mechanix Wear Most Valuable Pit Crew – by at least seven years. “It’s a challenge; we’re all at different places in our lives,” he said. “We’ve got a great group of guys. We all have a job in the shop but we’re hired to pit the car. That’s where it’s at. We work hard all week to get to Sunday.”

The crew got Edwards off pit road ahead of championship rival Tony Stewart at Texas Motor Speedway but finished second. On Sunday inPhoenix, they pitted ahead of Stewart on the final stop and finished a position better (second) to preserve a three-point Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ lead heading to this week’s Ford 400 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Karasinski is satisfied, yet remembers 2008 when Edwards won the Ford 300 but finished 69 points behind as runner up to Jimmie Johnson. And in 2005 when a four-win season resulted in a 35-point deficit to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Stewart.

“Myself, I take pride in doing a good job but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t win (the championship). It’s disheartening,” he said.

With one race remaining, the Chase heads to South Florida for the Ford 400 (ESPN, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, 3 p.m. ET).

Official winners of this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Prize Money & Decal Program special awards include:

• AMERICAN ETHANOL GREEN FLAG RESTART: Tony Stewart
• COORS LIGHT POLE AWARD: Matt Kenseth (137.101 mph, 26.258 secs,)
• DIRECTV CREW CHIEF OF THE RACE AWARD: Greg Erwin (crew chief for AJ Allmendinger)
• GOODYEAR GATORBACK BELTS FASTEST LAP AWARD: Tony Stewart (134.333 mph, Lap 188)
• MAHLE CLEVITE ENGINE BUILDER OF THE RACE AWARD: Hendrick Engines, No. 14
• MECHANIX WEAR MOST VALUABLE PIT CREW AWARD (4^th QUARTER): No. 99, Roush Fenway Racing
• MOBIL 1 OIL DRIVER OF THE RACE AWARD: Kasey Kahne
• MOOG CHASSIS PARTS PROBLEM SOLVER OF THE RACE AWARD: Tony Gibson, 0.259 secs (crew chief for Ryan Newman)
• O’REILLY AUTO PARTS POSITION IMPROVEMENT AWARD:  Ryan Newman (25 places)

For a complete description and special award standings of national series awards presented via the NASCAR Prize Money & Decal Program, visitwww.nascarmedia.com.

About the NASCAR Prize Money & Decal Program

The NASCAR Prize Money & Decal Program, commonly referred to as the contingency program, is administered by the NASCAR Automotive Group. The program strives to build strong relationships with high-quality, performance-driven brands that are leaders in their respective categories and award money to NASCAR teams via per-race and year-end postings. Competitors become eligible for awards money by displaying partner decals on the front fender of their race vehicles and, in some instances, use of a sponsor’s product. National series contingency sponsors will contribute over $8.4 million to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2011.

Official NASCAR Press Release