CONCORD, N.C. -- Shannon Conner has been spending a lot of time in his pickup since November.

"I'm going to run around to every race team I can find in the area and hopefully I find someone looking for what I can do," he said.

Conner builds cars, but Dale Earnhardt Incorporated laid him off last year. He's one of an estimated one-thousand workers in motorsports who lost their jobs after the slowed economy hit one of the Charlotte area's most notable industries.

---

Laid-Off NASCAR Workers Learning How To Market Their Skills

---

Conner spent Monday morning in Kannapolis at a meeting to help former NASCAR workers find jobs. Organizer Don Gemmell said the unemployed include highly skilled engineers, welders, pit crew workers, truck drivers and secretaries. He said they are people who could work in other industries if they just retooled their resumes and mindsets.

“The economic conditions dictate that they have to look outside motorsports to other industries," Gemmell said.

Gemmell was laid off by DEI himself and started dontcheckup.com. It's a place to post pictures with resumes to reach the NASCAR world and beyond.

“I was unbelievably impressed by the commitment and passion these people have for their jobs. It's not normal. It's not normal." Gemmell said.

For Conner, driving from race team to race team has become his daily routine. He said he's been to each place at least five times. He said he can't bear to leave the industry.

"It's life. It's what we love, what we can do," he said.

Conner once made $80,000 a year building cars and his heart knows no other home. Conner says, "I'm going to keep going to every race team. I'm going to keep bugging them till one of them hires me on."

• Former Motorsports Employee Job Help