Still Building America—Fabricating at lightning speed

Drew “Ruby” Parker, who has been fabricating since his youth, is a 29-year-old body hanger for a NASCAR® Camping World Truck Series team, Red Horse Racing. Back in the day, his grandpa, a UA boilermaker, taught him how to weld. Ruby never took any shop classes in high school, but was building things on his own throughout that time.

Being a body hanger in the NASCAR world requires a very particular skill set. NASCAR itself has a Technical Institute (NTI) that teaches the ins and outs of that trade, among others. Ruby had a friend with connections to the school and went for it:

“It was kind of a random decision right out of high school. It was either this or work on a farm for the rest of my life. I went through the whole program, during which I had an opportunity to volunteer for a Late Model/Hooters Pro Cup team to learn the ropes. I worked for free and went to school for two years. It was worth it.”

According to Ruby, the welding classes he took at NTI weren’t very in-depth, but at the same time he was using the skills he picked up from his grandpa to fab parts for the race team he was working with and was ahead of the curve in that way. Now, as a body hanger, he shapes both the interior and exterior sheet metal parts for the race trucks and installs them on their bare chassis. He also helps out when needed on other welding projects involving the trucks.

I asked Ruby what he enjoys most about his job. He said that working with a factory-backed race team with a large amount of resources allows him to be part of a dynamic vehicle. Ruby said, “We have setups that can virtually simulate the rigors of a race right in our facility, so we can “make changes to the chassis for more flex or less flex, and for lighter weight, as well as moving pivot points for suspension parts.

“For the body, we are given wind tunnel time and flat run testing. I can remember when I got pumped over a truck that blew 850 counts of downforce, and now we get pumped over 1,100 counts.” (Counts are a simplified measurement of downforce).

When he’s not working at his full-time race car fabricator gig, Ruby also fabricates on a smaller scale, creating sculptures of hot rods and motorcycles under his business name, Argon Art by Ruby.

Looking to the future, Ruby said, “Ultimately, I want to go into business for myself building one-off custom cars. As far as racing goes, I aspire to work in a place like Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing. I think for the NASCAR world, those two places are the place you want to work and retire from.”

And he has a few last words to those coming up: “My advice would be to find something that you are passionate about and stick to it. Don’t listen to people that drag your work down. Get better! Absorb all the information and knowledge from the people you work with and the folks that have been around your business for years. Never give up and work hard.”

You can find Argon Art by Ruby on Facebook and Instagram.