NASCAR crew member and TV extra, Pekin native a renaissance man with many uniforms

PEORIA — Alex Timmerman might be the best role player in central Illinois.

The Pekin, Illinois, native and Deer Creek resident is a car chief on a NASCAR Xfinity Series crew. But he has also served as commander of the 9th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry in Civil War re-enactments, and is a background actor on two hit network TV shows.

He takes on life at full speed, last week cutting "Peoria Rivermen #1" into a nearly full ice-rink-sized plot of lawn in a buddy's yard in Tremont. He's a frequent face at Rivermen games, for whom he has been a season ticket holder since 2002.

Cars are a passion for him.

"I grew up racing E-Mods here on dirt tracks, once or twice at Peoria Speedway but mostly at Spoon River," said Timmerman, 40. "Grew up in Pekin. We moved to Florida where my dad got into a housing development business and I lived outside Orlando from ages 16-24.

"I started racing on asphalt tracks in Florida. Way too expensive."

His father, Mark, and his brothers built race cars in the 1960s, 70s and 80s and Timmerman inherited that passion.

The Xfinity Series No. 91 car

NASCAR has multiple series, from the Cup Series at the top, followed by the Xfinity Series (formerly the Busch Series), then lower-level circuits for trucks and ARCA.

Timmerman is on the crew for the DGM Race Team, serving as car chief (essentially lead mechanic) for the No. 91 car driven by Kyle Weatherman in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He has crewed for teams in the Cup series, and sometimes drops to the truck and ARCA series to fuel and jack for teams to pick up extra money. He's well-established and in demand.

"DGM Racing is owned by Mario Gosselin," Timmerman said. "He's a longtime former driver and really, he wrote the book on the short track game."

The team runs No. 91 and No. 92 cars and has a part-time car, No. 36. Timmerman is on the team's top car, the 91 driven by Weatherman.

When the Rivermen won the President's Cup in 2022, he put a championship sticker on the No. 91 car. He plans to do the same with the 2024 champions.

"I've been doing this off and on since 2002, and full-time since 2011," he said. "I like working with a team on the cars, the goal of constant improvement. The pressure of changing our outcome during a race.

"It's such a grind to do this. Even if you know what you're doing, it's constant go and push. It's 90% suck. But the 10% is why everyone does this. We're an underfunded mom-and-pop team. We drove into the top 10 last week, huge for us."

He's worked NASCAR races at Darlington ("My favorite track, I like the beach and a lot of team fans down there"), Talladega, Bristol, Martinsville, all the storied tracks.

"And the travel is a blast, good experiences," Timmerman said. "I've been to about 20 states with this team. Checked out Mount St. Helens. Went to the hideout from the movie 'Goonies.' We go to Vegas. And Zion National Park in Utah, just a beautiful, unbelievable place."

Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Pub 52

When he's not working in his landscaping business with his wife, Kara, or tending bar at Pub 52 in Mackinaw, Timmerman can be found on a set of two hit NBC TV shows set in Chicago.

"I applied for a few episodes for Chicago Fire and Chicago Med, and they booked me as a background actor," he said, laughing. "It's been so much fun. I've seen and learned so much about the business."

He has appeared as a doctor and as a patient in different scenes on Chicago Med. He was a shopper in a grocery store accident scene in season 12, episode 3 of Chicago Fire.

"They tell you exactly what they want you to do," Timmerman said. "But they're really loosely hands-on, even with the main actors. I've had a couple small conversations with the main actors."

The pay is about $140 for eight hours, and breakfast and lunch are included. But that's not why Timmerman pursued it.

"It's become a weird thing for me, my first goal was to have my face show up on the TV screen and have people I know go 'What the hell, that's Timmerman,' " he said, laughing. "I would never fancy myself a full-time actor."

The 9th Regiment

Timmerman designed and operated several Civil War and WWII re-enactment shows around Peoria in the late 2000s. He was commander of the 9th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry in one of the Civil War re-enactments he directed in Delavan.

There have been WWII-era re-enactments, and now, he has his eye on something else.

"I'm going to start doing Revolutionary War re-enacting because we're coming up on our 250-year anniversary," he said. "The re-enactments are fun. I love history and when I'm traveling I like to find battlefields and tour them. Then I'll arrive at the (NASCAR) track and tell the crew all about it.

"It's just a great getaway."

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Pekin native works as NASCAR crew member, extra on TV shows