CONCORD, N.C. — It was around 7 p.m. on Monday, April 27 when a Postmates driver arrived outside the apartment I share with my wife to deliver some food to one of our neighbors.
We were standing outside of our apartment talking with another neighbor after walking our dog when the Postmates driver walked past. I noticed he was wearing a Wimmer Motorsports shirt and asked him about it after he completed his delivery.
The Postmates driver turned out to be Wesley Weed, a well-known short-track tire specialist who has worked with drivers such as Ty Majeski, Harrison Burton and Donnie Wilson.
Weed works as an independent contractor and is typically hired by race teams in advance of events to select tires, size them, put them into sets and do anything else related to the tires on a given weekend.
“I get hired by many teams at super late model races, usually between four and 17 depending on how big the race is,” Weed explained a few days later by phone. “I go in and I buy all the tires, I size them, I put them in the sets. One team I’ll work with in their pit. The others I’ll walk through their pit and look at all the pressures and the temps to make sure the cambers are right.”
However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak that has kept most of the racing industry shut down since mid-March, there hasn’t been any work for Weed. Needing a way to make money, he turned to delivering food to pay the bills.
“With the disease I didn’t want to do any driving with people,” Weed said, referencing ride-share services such as Lyft or Uber. “I saw it (Postmates) online and I went and did it, and it’s been pretty cool.”
Weed took the job delivering food for Postmates about five weeks ago. He noted that he’s done a good job over the years saving money and he has a decent amount put away. However, rather than burn through his savings, Weed decided it was best to stay busy and make a little extra cash while he waits for the racing season to resume.
Postmates was a good fit.
“I need to pay my bills. There’s no doubt there,” Weed said. “This way I don’t have to go after anything that I already have. It’s just paying the bills. I need to take in $75 a day to pay the bills and I’m taking in $150 to $200 most days.”
The one major downside is that in order to make that money, Weed’s work days are on the longer side.
“That’s from 7:30 in the morning to 10 or 11 o’clock at night,” Weed said. “It’s not a whole lot of money per hour, but it’s like I said, I’m not exhausting my (bank) account.”
Delivering food is a far cry from the life Weed typically lives. The Maine native estimated that during a typical season he spends around 300 days on the road traveling to and from races across the United States.
Weed admitted there has been one nice positive about not being on the road as much.
“It’s nice that I sleep in my own bed every night,” Weed admitted.
Weed is hoping to get back to the race track in the near future. As things currently stand, he is scheduled to travel to Florida’s Showtime Speedway next weekend to work with drivers Anthony Sergi and Michael Atwell.
“It’s not work. That’s my way of life,” Weed said of being at the race track. “Everybody says you’re crazy running around with your head chopped off all day long working the whole day. Well, it is what it is. But when you love what you do, it’s not work.”
Until he’s able to get back to the race track, Weed will continue to work for Postmates to take in a little extra money to pay the bills. It’s not a race track, but for Weed it’s enough for now.