Cesar Villanueva keeps focused and sharp for the latest NASCAR Cup Series race weekend. (Photo: Travis Haston | The Podium Finish)
On race days, Cesar Villanueva is often working ardently on ensuring that the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry is ready to win the latest NASCAR Cup Series battle. While he does not sit atop the pit box or change tires, he plays a critical role in terms of the mechanical nuances of Kyle Larson’s ride.
Villanueva goes about his work with a smile while remaining determined and confident. From configuring the tire pressures leading up to the start of the latest race to ensuring that Larson’s driver compartment is snug and comfortable as possible, he spends as much time with the latest No. 5 entry to ensure the best possible shot at victory.
The 43-year-old native of Parsippany, New Jersey has made his presence known in NASCAR since 2001. As one of the original alums of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program, Villanueva has proven himself as a valuable asset to Hendrick Motorsports since late 2017.
Villanueva, a tire mechanic and interior specialist, may not be vociferous but he does his talking by working hard and chipping in along with his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports comrades. Much like crew chief Cliff Daniels, he motivates his band of brothers with his calm, disciplined but calculative approach.
Moreover, he has that racer’s desire for wins and championships much like Larson. Likewise, much like the 2021 season, he is as hungry and motivated to be a part of another title run for Larson and Hendrick organization.
Earlier this month, Villanueva talked more about his role with the No. 5 team, a week in the life in his shoes, the successes of the 2023 season and much more. It is time to return to Life in the Pits with Cesar Villanueva on The Podium Finish!
Rob Tiongson : When we last spoke in 2021 for your feature story, it was in the midst of a great championship season for the No. 5 team. But a lot has happened since 2021. You’ve got two points paying wins, you’ve got the NASCAR All-Star Race victory and four playoff points to fall back on once we get to the postseason. So how are things going over with the No. 5 team this time around?
Although it has been an up and down season, Villanueva knows the No. 5 team is capable of scoring more wins like Richmond earlier this year. (Photo: Trish McCormack | The Podium Finish)
Cesar Villanueva : It’s not bad at all. It’s pretty good. I can’t at all complain about our season.Like you said, (in) 2023, we’ve got two points wins and an All-Star Race win. And for the other 10 plus races that we ran this season, we were definitely in contention to win at the end there and things just haven’t fell our way.
Not only do we have three wins this season, but we also have five DNFs (Did Not Finishes). We’re running up front, in contention and we are just not there at the end. So when you look at Daytona, we were in the mix in the lead, so to say, and we ended up crashing. Talladega is the same thing.
Atlanta, we were running about second place and we run into another car who was the leader and that took us out of the race. Bristol Dirt, we didn’t finish either. We ran pretty good there. We got the pole. I think we won the Stage 1. And most recently, the Coke 600, we were there, mixing with it towards the end and we sort of spun by ourselves and crashed out. It’s an up and down season, but it’s still a pretty good one.
Tiongson : I know those victories and likely being in the Playoffs certainly helps things out. Before we talk about your role again, when you go through those highs and lows that racing has those pendulum swings, how do you and your team kind of keep together so you don’t hit that frustration point? And when you hit the highs, you don’t stay too long in cloud nine and forget about staying realistic?
Villanueva : Our crew chief (Cliff Daniels) keeps us in check. He reminds us that to stay on the grind every day. With North Wilkesboro, we got that high… we got that win. And then with the Coke 600 (at Charlotte), we crash out and finish 30th.
You just gotta take what you can get. And you just got to stay even keel and stay off that emotional roller coaster.
Tiongson : That’s great advice from Cliff and I can see him definitely making sure you guys stay on track with that, which is what a staple of the No. 5 team. And previously the No. 48 team when y’all had Jimmie Johnson as your driver. So staying the course is key in the world of NASCAR.
Now, let’s talk a little bit you and then kind of get towards the the current times, of course. Now I know we talked about you in great detail in 2021. But for fans who are learning about you and your career for the first time, can you walk us through some of those important tasks that you work on during the race week and the race weekend leading up to a Cup race?
Villanueva : During the race week, we come in on Tuesday morning and the car is somewhat prepared for us. The road crew comes in and we basically add whatever items that were not completed. There’s still somewhat a shortage of parts. So whatever you raced the previous weekend, you’re most likely going to put in your next weekend’s car.
For me, it’d be like seat insert, steering wheel drive or cooling unit, certain fans and hoses that have to go into the car just to keep Kyle cool, stuff like that mostly.
Tiongson : That’s lot of work, to say the least. But I’m hopeful that it’s gotten a little bit easier as you’ve gotten used to this Next Gen car because when we spoke in 2021, it was the final year of the Gen 6 stock car that was introduced in 2013. And you guys have gotten used to, or at least have worked on a lot more with, the Next Gen car.
What are some of the differences between these two cup Cars from your perspective in terms of what you do as the interior mechanic and tire specialist?
The more things change, the more they stay the same, it would seem, for Villanueva. (Photo: Sean Folsom | The Podium Finish)
Villanueva : Going back to what the biggest differences are between the car here at the shop before I get into the interior stuff, because that has pretty much relatively stayed the same, the work there hasn’t changed. The biggest differences is getting these cars prepared in the shop.
Back with the Gen 6 car, there was a lot of bondo, a lot of sanding, a lot of paint, a lot of body tweaking, trying to maximize your aero gains. With this car, instead of the sanding or the bondo, it’s more or less scanning cars with ROMER arms trying to try to get essentially the same thing without all that bondo and and sanding and painting because you just can’t do that anymore.
All these cars are now wrapped and all these composite body panels, you just see what you can get out of them. And that’s where all the time is spent and the underwings, underneath the car is where all the downforce is generated. And that’s really important.
Fast forwarding to what I do inside the car… that hasn’t changed. You got to make the car comfortable for your driver and especially with all the things that have happened now safety wise with all these crashes. There’s obviously a little difference between the Gen 6 and the Gen 7, and it’s all about keeping your driver safe and secure. A lot of work inside a car. I think I’ve done a lot of seat insert and seat headrest modifications just over the last year and a half, just trying to get it right.
Tiongson : I was gonna say there’s quite a difference between Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Larson because Jimmie, while he is not the tallest driver, he’s average sized height wise. And then Kyle is a little bit more towards the shorter side, like a Mark Martin type of driver.
Villanueva : Working in the interior of the car, there’s a difference between Jimmie’s seat and Kyle’s seat. More or less, a carbon seat gets placed in the driver’s seat area and it’s a pretty big shell. The difference with Jimmie (is that) his is a little further back. Kyle is a little further forward.
You have that same carbon bucket. But once you put the insert in, I don’t even fit in Kyle’s insert. But with Jimmie’s seat, I could sit in, so it’s not that bad. You do most of the work without the insert in it. But yeah, it’s real, real tight. I mean, my knees go up against the dashboard.
Tiongson : Well, that sounds like it’d be perfect for me then because I’m pretty short! But if I had to be in Jimmie’s car, I’d probably need a phone book to go and sit in it. So I can relate to Kyle on that side of things.
You mentioned previously to me how Darlington has been your track. It’s been a venue that the No. 5 team has done such a great job at since you guys banded together in 2021. What makes this track so special to you out of the many tracks that are part of the Cup schedule? And how special was it for you to help out Kaulig Racing’s No. 10 team win the NASCAR XFINITY Series race with Kyle Larson last month at Darlington?
Recently, Villanueva enjoyed working with Larson particularly during their winning NASCAR XFINITY Series efforts at Darlington. (Photo: Trish McCormack | The Podium Finish)
Villanueva : It’s phenomenal. Darlington is my favorite track and it’s the first track I went to to go watch a NASCAR race at. But other than that, the track itself, it’s a driver’s race track.
The tires get worn out really quick. The drivers have to manage their race car and keep their tires fresh as long as they can to keep that speed up. And every time a caution comes out or every time you change tires, you usually take four tires just because that’s that’s what you do with that race track. Four tires are premium. It’s just the way that they race at that racetrack that I like it so much.
Now, as far as the the No. 10 Kaulig car (is concerned), it was a privilege to go work with them. Usually, I go with Kyle wherever he goes as far as the NASCAR side (is concerned), not his dirt stuff, not his IndyCar stuff either, but as far as NASCAR goes. And if the schedule allows, I usually go with him, Xfinity or Truck racing.
In this case with the Kaulig car, it’s not an in-house car but I was going to go with him anyway and it was pretty cool. I was there to help him out. You had the Kaulig car and mechanics. The pit crew was the No. 1 pit crew of Ross Chastain from Trackhouse Racing. The whole team was kind of like a mixed bag of people. And then to win with them, that was pretty cool.
Tiongson : That’s pretty cool. As special as it was to win the NASCAR XFINITY Series race in May, when you guys get back there in September, I’m sure you’ve got that Southern 500 date circled on the calendar because you guys were so close to winning in the spring. If you win that race, it’s gonna probably be a big one for the No. 5 team in the shot.
Villanueva : For sure. The fall Darlington race is another doubleheader weekend for us. We’re running the No. 17 XFINITY car along with our No. 5 Cup car. The spring was the No. 10 Kaulig car, but this fall is going to be both our cars and Kyle driving that XFINITY car. So it’s going to be hopefully another shot at a weekend sweep.
Tiongson : There you go. And hey, it’s happened before because we’re gonna talk about that a little bit. You guys swept North Wilkesboro because the Truck race with the Spire entry, Kyle won on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday night, he pretty much just dominated and won the NASCAR All-Star Race.
In the last few years, it’s been a little bit of a different NASCAR. We’ve got the Bristol Dirt race, Nashville Superspeedway, North Wilkesboro, and of course, in July, the Chicago Street Course race. How do you prepare for those unknown venues that the Cup series has either yet to compete at or has very little data about in recent years?
Villanueva : I’m not a setup guy. But if you go to these all new tracks, if it’s a road course, then you go back to road course notes. If it’s a short track like North Wilkesboro, you go back to your Martinsville and Richmond notes. You pretty much go for there. Beyond that, we’ve got Kyle Larson driving the car. So he usually just shows up, drives whatever tracks. It’s just no different.
Tiongson : That’s true, the driver does make an equation, but it’s a team sport. And I know you and the whole No. 5 team really band together and it helps to have all that data to say the least, because a lot of that has helped with those victories on short tracks, by the way, which is really impressive.
The NASCAR All-Star Race held a pit crew competition on Friday evening that decided of the starting lineups for the All-Star Race and All-Star Open. How special was that for you to be a part of that competition even though you didn’t go over the wall, but to see your your your friends and your peers climbing over the wall and helps get spotlighted in that event?
Villanueva : It definitely caught me every now and then. The telecast will put the names of the roster or the respective crew. And that’s pretty cool just because, like you said, the recognition isn’t usually there. And then there’s guys like me who try to hide from all that.
Tiongson : Well, you always have a great story to share.
You’ve been part of Hendrick Motorsports for quite a while and of course, the world of NASCAR since 2001, when you mentioned about watching the 2001 Daytona 500 back at home in New Jersey. So what has Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR given to you that you will forever cherish, especially when you think about your beginnings in the sport?
Even if it’s a cold, blustery race day like California, Villanueva is living his racing dreams with Hendrick Motorsports. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
Villanueva : My whole life has changed over the last 20 years. So it’s a good place to be in great now. You get into sport trying to win races and championships. And I’ve always wanted just to win one race or one championship.
You come here to be able to achieve that, whether it be here or past race teams. Being able to do this, and I’ve got a family back at home, working in the motorsports industry has been good.
Editor’s Notes
Special thanks to Cesar for taking his time to talk about his journey and experiences in the racing industry. Also, special thanks to Autumn Darracq on making this interview possible with Cesar!
Follow the progress of the No. 5 team throughout the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season here on The Podium Finish.
