Brian Campe
Motorsports
Brian Campe’s first gig in racing: Peeling decals off a transport truck that hauled the car of a driver who won twice in 428 races. And doing so for free.
Brian Campe’s latest gig in racing: The brains behind a team led by a couple of men who own a total of 14 NASCAR championships and 283 wins between them.
The climb from grunt work to greatness over the past two decades has placed Campe among the most respected engineers and leaders in motorsports. It has also made him a deserving recipient of recognition in his native Madison County, as the 1999 graduate of Bob Jones High is inducted into our Hall of Fame.
“It’s a great honor, the fact that other people recognized this career,” Campe says. “You think athletic hall of fame, you don’t think of a race engineer.” The award, he says, is special “not just for me, but my family.” That would include parents Mike and B.J. – Mike used to drag-race years ago in the St. Louis area – wife Shannon Plate Campe (also a Bob Jones grad) and their sons, Cooper, Riley and Gunner. Campe, who played football at Bob Jones and once received the Patriot Attitude award, was enshrined in his alma mater’s Hall of Fame in 2008.
On the subject of Hall of Famers, the list of drivers with whom Campe has worked or owners for whom he has worked is spectacular: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Larson, Josef Newgarden and Juan Pablo Montoya among the former, Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske among the latter. And his two new employers at Legacy Motor Club, team co-owner Jimmie Johnson and club ambassador Richard Petty, with their seven NASCAR titles apiece.
Among garage insiders, Legacy’s hiring of Campe from Hendrick Motorsports was considered a major coup, and Johnson said, “The addition of a talent like Brian Campe is integral to the success of Legacy Motor Club. Brian’s experience with championship teams like Hendrick and Penske will make him a huge asset to Legacy.”
Campe is a rarity in motorsports because he has held major roles in two vastly different types of racing, the stock cars of NASCAR and the sleek open-wheel racers of IndyCar. That made him particularly ideal last spring when Hendrick teamed with an IndyCar operation to enter Larson into the Indianapolis 500, with Campe leading the way as Team Strategist. He was at Hendrick – which fielded cars for Johnson, Jeff Gordon and now for Larson, Elliott and back-to-back Daytona 500 champ William Byron – from 2005-08, then rejoined the team in 2021 as Director of Performance Development before transitioning into the role of Technical Director.
In 2008, Penske had the notion to create a “super team,” with engineering talent that could work on either his NASCAR or IndyCar entries. Campe was brought aboard as race engineer, working primarily with Montoya. In the 2015 Indy 500, Montoya was hit from behind during a caution period. Campe and team were forced to replace the entire rear wing panel and Montoya fell to 30th. But he steadily charged back through the field to win the race. “Something I never dreamed of competing in,” Campe says, “let alone winning.” Two years later, Campe was race engineer for Newgarden, winning the IndyCar season championship.
The roots for all this success began in Huntsville, and with a salty mechanic who threatened to fire Campe if he didn’t quit.
Mo Thigpen, a coach at Bob Jones, knew of Campe’s interest in racing and introduced him to a friend at Huntsville Engine. Campe began working there while attending UAH. After three years, company owner Gary Reavis set up a meeting with Alan Rose, who worked for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Campe and his dad visited the shop and toured the campus at UNC-Charlotte. When they returned, Reavis had an ultimatum: “He said if I didn't tell him I was quitting and moving to North Carolina, he was going to fire me,” Campe says.
So, it was off to North Carolina, going to class from 7 a.m. until 11, going to the race shop from noon to 5 for whatever menial tasks awaited and stocking shelves at Target from 2-5 a.m. The rest is history as Campe established his own unique legacy in motorsports.
--Mark McCarter
