MORE: James Ince’s phone used to ring all of the time. Now, he’s waiting for somebody to call. When Ince was the youngest crew chief in NASCAR’s top series, there were people trying to lure him away from the #10 team. But last year, the circumstances of real life made racing take a backseat for the first time in his adult life. “I turned down offers from half the garage area when I was working,” Ince says. “My timing was off.” He left the team he’d help build and hold together through some hard times to deal with some hard times for himself and for his family. “I had some things I had to take care of,” he says now. “Someday, I know I am going to look back on it and say it was the best thing I ever did.” Ince’s father took ill last year and the family business was in danger of going under. “People were going to lose their homes and things like that,” Ince said. Ince had how own issues, too. Mainly, he was burned out, and that didn’t at all surprise people who knew him best. To say that Ince is intense is to say that the ocean is wet. When he’s working on his race car, that’s exactly what it is – his race car. He built cars and raced them on all kinds of tracks all across the Midwest before coming to NASCAR. When somebody here gave him the reins to a team, they found out quickly that Ince didn’t consider it a loan. If he was going to be held responsible for how well it did, he was going to be the one who decided how it should be built and tuned. That attitude doesn’t sit particularly well with some, and Ince understands that. But he still believes that he’s got something to offer to the right team, and still believes that sometime soon that team will ring his phone. Ince wasn’t at North Carolina Speedway on Sunday for the Subway 400, a track where he got his first win as a crew chief in November 2002 with Johnny Benson at the wheel of the #10 Pontiac. He’s just back in the Charlotte area from Missouri, where he’s been handling his own and his family issues. And he says he’s ready to go racing again. “For the first time in three years my fire is relit,” said Ince, who’s now 33. “I am just trying to find somebody who’s ready to win races and win championships.” After he left the #10 team during 2003, he had chances to go back to work. “But I had a million things on my plate I had to attend to,” he said. “If it had been one thing I could have handled it, but I got hit with a bunch of things at once. Now, I’ve emptied my plate.” The #10 team, for years, had an “us-against-the-world” mentality that held it together longer than otherwise would have been possible. That came unglued last year, though, and Ince accepts his share of the blame. MBV Motorsports team has gone in a new direction, with rookie Scott Riggs driving its Chevrolets. Benson is driving in the Busch Series and Ince is looking for a place to start again. “It got to a point where I just felt like I wasn’t able to make anything good happen for the team,” Ince says. “That’s part of the sport, and finally I figured out it was OK for me to make a personal decision to do what was best for me and not go down with the ship.” Ince watched the Daytona 500 on TV and said all it really did was make him mad. “I saw my life on television and I wasn’t a part of it,” he said. Now he wants back in the game. “My goal is to find a car owner who wants to win races who is willing to let me do what I do,” he said. “People used to think I was too intense, but now I am going to be twice now as intense as I ever was.”(ThatsRacin.com)(2-26-2004)
Update on James Ince MORE:
MORE: James Ince’s phone used to ring all of the time. Now, he’s waiting for somebody to call. When Ince was the youngest crew chief in NASCAR’s top series, there were people trying to lure him away from the #10 team. But last year, the circumstances of real life made racing take a backseat for the first time in his adult life. “I turned down offers from half the garage area when I was working,” Ince says. “My timing was off.” He left the team he’d help build and hold together through some hard times to deal with some hard times for himself and for his family. “I had some things I had to take care of,” he says now. “Someday, I know I am going to look back on it and say it was the best thing I ever did.” Ince’s father took ill last year and the family business was in danger of going under. “People were going to lose their homes and things like that,” Ince said. Ince had how own issues, too. Mainly, he was burned out, and that didn’t at all surprise people who knew him best. To say that Ince is intense is to say that the ocean is wet. When he’s working on his race car, that’s exactly what it is – his race car. He built cars and raced them on all kinds of tracks all across the Midwest before coming to NASCAR. When somebody here gave him the reins to a team, they found out quickly that Ince didn’t consider it a loan. If he was going to be held responsible for how well it did, he was going to be the one who decided how it should be built and tuned. That attitude doesn’t sit particularly well with some, and Ince understands that. But he still believes that he’s got something to offer to the right team, and still believes that sometime soon that team will ring his phone. Ince wasn’t at North Carolina Speedway on Sunday for the Subway 400, a track where he got his first win as a crew chief in November 2002 with Johnny Benson at the wheel of the #10 Pontiac. He’s just back in the Charlotte area from Missouri, where he’s been handling his own and his family issues. And he says he’s ready to go racing again. “For the first time in three years my fire is relit,” said Ince, who’s now 33. “I am just trying to find somebody who’s ready to win races and win championships.” After he left the #10 team during 2003, he had chances to go back to work. “But I had a million things on my plate I had to attend to,” he said. “If it had been one thing I could have handled it, but I got hit with a bunch of things at once. Now, I’ve emptied my plate.” The #10 team, for years, had an “us-against-the-world” mentality that held it together longer than otherwise would have been possible. That came unglued last year, though, and Ince accepts his share of the blame. MBV Motorsports team has gone in a new direction, with rookie Scott Riggs driving its Chevrolets. Benson is driving in the Busch Series and Ince is looking for a place to start again. “It got to a point where I just felt like I wasn’t able to make anything good happen for the team,” Ince says. “That’s part of the sport, and finally I figured out it was OK for me to make a personal decision to do what was best for me and not go down with the ship.” Ince watched the Daytona 500 on TV and said all it really did was make him mad. “I saw my life on television and I wasn’t a part of it,” he said. Now he wants back in the game. “My goal is to find a car owner who wants to win races who is willing to let me do what I do,” he said. “People used to think I was too intense, but now I am going to be twice now as intense as I ever was.”(ThatsRacin.com)(2-26-2004)