The rolling farmland of Lancaster County may be far removed from the gritty racetracks of NASCAR, but both are "home" to Lynn and Jerry Hess. Their lives haven't been the same since the fateful day in 1998 that the couple packed up their belongings and moved to Concord, N.C., in pursuit of a dream.

Now they can both be found on the job wherever the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series is racing. Jerry, 43, is transporter driver/mechanic for the No. 11 Fed Ex car driven by Denny Hamlin and owned by Joe Gibbs Racing. Lynn, 40, is administrative assistant to the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 DuPont team piloted by Jeff Gordon and the No. 48 Lowe's team with driver Jimmie Johnson.

"We had been following racing for three or four years, attending a few races in Richmond and Dover," Lynn said. "My husband's been a mechanic all his life and he wanted to try to get involved in the sport. I never thought I would. I was a dental assistant working in an operating room for 10 years."

They moved to the hub of NASCAR in North Carolina, where it wasn't long before Jerry found a job.

"I started out with Roehrig Motorsports and drove the transporter for Tony Raines when he drove the Yellow Freight Craftsman truck," Jerry said. "From there, I went to Hendrick and drove the transporter for Terry Labonte. I was there a year and then moved to MB2 for Johnny Benson and the Valvoline car for three years. Then I went to Gibbs, where I'm in my fourth year."

Meanwhile, Lynn took a part-time job in the gift shop at Hendrick Motorsports, working Saturdays and holidays. When a full-time opening arose for an administrative assistant in the 24 shop, co-workers encouraged Lynn to apply.

"I got the job by luck, I think," Lynn said, laughing. "But I love it. There are about 90 people in our shop, like one big team. They only separate when they come to the track because they have to. I take care of all their uniforms, their money when they travel, arrange their hotels and rental cars, schedule appearances for the crew chiefs and do administrative work for the crew chiefs and team manager. So it's diverse, and that keeps it fun."

So what was it like in the shop three weeks ago after that close beatin'-and-bangin' finish at Martinsville, Va., between Gordon and Johnson?

Lynn laughed at the question.

"I thought it was going to be a little bit more interesting," she said, "but really, I didn't hear any talk about it as far as among the guys because they do all work on both cars. My thought was, how many people can say they work on a team where they're fighting for the win? I mean, who do you root for? We made it a positive. Jeff and Jimmie were not mad at each other. [48 crew chief] Chad [Knaus] and [24 crew chief] Steve [Letarte] made sure we all knew that."

Jerry's job involves more than just keeping the transporter mechanically sound and driving it.

"I also make sure it's clean, loaded and stocked with everything," he said. "Most of it is spare parts like hardware, nuts, bolts, air conditioners for the driver, helmets, driver and crew uniforms — anything we used out of the truck the week before has to be re-stocked."

And there's one other duty Jerry takes care of for the team on race day — cooking.

"Cooking is the worst part of my job," he said, smiling. "It's just something I have to do. Mostly it's just lunch. I'm pretty creative with the grill and doing different things. I also do the grocery shopping and get it all ready."

There is another downside, too; Jerry has to put up with fan reaction to his truck, which can sometimes be extreme.

"You get flashed, you get obscene gestures sometimes," he said. "It's not quite as bad with this truck, but some of the really popular ones — Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. — they get beer bottles and things thrown at them sometimes from really irate fans. With Denny being a young driver, we don't get a lot of that like some of the more established drivers do.

"I keep the CB turned off a lot of the time because I get tired of people hollering about the driver and asking the same questions all the time."

It's an unlikely tale for a pair who grew up on farms in Lancaster County. Lynn, the daughter of Robert and Elaine Funk of Mountville, grew up on her family's produce farm in Washington Boro. Jerry, the son of Abe and Janie Hess of Conestoga, grew up on his family's hog farm.

Both are graduates of Penn Manor High School; Lynn in 1984, and Jerry in 1982. Although they knew each other in school, they didn't date until after both had graduated. They married in 1988.

In addition to her Monday through Friday work schedule, Lynn recently took on duties as race-day scorer for the No. 24 car.

"A scorer keeps track of the laps for the car," she explained. "Each car has to provide a scorer to NASCAR and we all sit together in a suite with the NASCAR officials. Every time our car crosses the start/finish line, we press a button and write down the time. It's back-up scoring to the electronic scoring on the car.

"I started scoring so I could spend more time with Jerry. Jerry's job as a driver keeps him on the road away from home several days a week. This way, we can have breakfast or lunch together at the track, and sometimes we get to the church service there, too. So it's nice.

"When we go to the West Coast, we come in on Saturday because it's such a long flight. I usually just fly in on Sundays with the pit crew."

But flying sometimes brings up painful memories of a horrific day in October 2004, when a Hendrick plane crashed en route to a race in Martinsville, killing all 10 people aboard.

"When I think of worst experiences at a track, I have to think of that day," Lynn said. "It's still hard to believe. I found out during the race when I went into the 48 transporter. Somebody in there asked me, 'Did you hear that our plane went down?' At the time, they hadn't confirmed that there were no survivors, but it was looking that way.

"Then we were wondering who was on that plane. It was unbelievable. I remember driving home — at Martinsville, we get terrible cell-phone service — and my family was trying to call me because they saw on TV that a Hendrick plane went down. They were thinking that I was on it because they couldn't get through to me. It was really scary. I'll never forget the sound of my mom's voice when I finally talked to her. She was practically in tears that I was alive.

"It still gets talked about at least every month. And we have pictures hanging in our shop in memory of them. It's definitely still on everybody's minds and always will be. I mean, you have to go on, but those people will never be forgotten."

Jerry had a rare weekend off and wasn't at the track at the time, but he wasn't particularly concerned about Lynn.

"I knew she wasn't on a plane because the crews normally don't fly to Martinsville since it's close by," he said. "They drive there in their vans."

But the travel is also one of the most enjoyable parts of the job for Lynn. She especially enjoyed going to New York in December to celebrate Johnson's NASCAR Nextel Cup championship.

"Sometimes I just have to pinch myself," she said. "I'm so lucky to be able to travel the way I do. There's no better guy to work for than [team owner] Mr. [Rick] Hendrick. He's so generous, and it's such a great place to work. Having the chance to go to New York and be involved in the celebrations there with Jeff and Jimmie was amazing. Sometimes I just step back and think, 'I'm still a fan.' "

But it sounds like Lynn has a few fans of her own.

"Lynn's the one that comes through in the clutch on a daily basis," said Knaus. "The motorsports industry is ever changing and it goes through transitions from being very calm to being extremely hectic in no time whatsoever. She's always the one there to bail us out. She's very thorough in making sure that we've got everything we need and all the logistical things squared away."

"The joke around our shop about Lynn is that she runs the place," said Letarte. "It's really not much of a joke. Chad and I both would be lost without her. Lynn does it all. She's 24/7. She makes everybody's employment here much easier."