CONCORD, N.C. – Marlin Yoder, a former mechanic for two Hendrick Motorsports teams who now works with the Hendrick Performance Track Attack program, was this week's guest on "The Dale Jr. Download."
Yoder joined host Dale Earnhardt Jr. to discuss how he grew up Amish and left the community at age 17 before finding his way to NASCAR.
"I've got this whole world in front of me that I don't know anything about. I know very little about what's going on outside of what I grew up doing. In a way, it was scary," Yoder said of his decision to leave home. "Now, looking back and seeing what I do now and the person I've become, it's that challenge that I enjoyed as I am learning all these things when I leave."
Yoder recalled how he started listening to races on the radio, the first race he watched on television and worked at the grassroots level in Wisconsin. He also discussed how he came to move to North Carolina, got a job at Hendrick Motorsports, and why he shifted away from a road crew position after the 2022 season.
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During his time as a front-end mechanic in the NASCAR Cup Series, Yoder worked with the No. 48 team at Hendrick Motorsports (from the end of 2018 to 2020) and then shifted with that team's personnel to the No. 5 team. He was part of the 2021 championship-winning team with driver Kyle Larson. After coming off the road, Yoder was part of the Garage 56 crew and traveled to France as the front-end mechanic. Away from his role with Hendrick Performance, he is racing a street stock at the grassroots level.
"It honestly never really hit me until after we won the championship (in 2021) with Kyle Larson," Yoder said of his unconventional path to NASCAR. "I won the championship, built my own street stock and it's super fast. Then, it just kind of hit me. It really hit me when I was talking to somebody about that and how I left. Looking back, it seems impossible. There's like no chance of that happening."
You can listen to the full episode of "The Dale Jr. Download" here and learn more about Yoder's role with the Track Attack program here.