the Raiders, Buccaneers and a stint in the Canadian Football League. Trent Cherry, a former
quarterback at Lenoir-Rhyne University, now serves as pit coach for Penske Racing as well as rear-tire carrier for Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 team. Football fuels a lot of
discussion this time of year for former players and fans alike. Cherry is a fervent fan of the University of South Carolina, while Penske Vice President of Operations Mike Nelson is a Clemson backer. Their best opportunity to talk trash to one another is the fall. The same held true for
Rodney Fetters, a jackman at Roush Fenway Racing, and former Roush crew chief Greg Erwin. Erwin, now with Richard Petty Motorsports and driver AJ
Allmendinger, is a 1992 graduate of Clemson with a degree in mechanical engineering. Fetters, like Cherry, loves his Gamecocks. It seems like jackman is the
dominant position for former athletes, and a majority of them have a football background. If you’ve gone through the rigors of two-a-days in the hot summer weather, chances are you’re more equipped to handle the physical challenges on pit road. The new combine facility at Hendrick Motorsports reminds you of an NFL training camp. I’ve been in the weight room
at Hendrick with members of the No. 48 and No. 88 teams and watched them perform plyometric exercises designed to help them better perform their respective roles on pit road. It’s
pretty impressive. The sport has really evolved more toward position-specific specialists and training these guys accordingly. State-of-the-art weight rooms have become the norm in NASCAR and most rival those of other professional sports. That said, the amount of
weight a NASCAR pit crew member can bench press or how fast he runs doesn’t completely dictate his success. The toughest part of the transition to NASCAR arguably comes in the mental preparation necessary for perfect execution on pit road. It is a demanding workplace with a premium placed on precision of movement. It is worth noting that several
former players from sports other than football now ply their trade in NASCAR. Richard Childress
Racing strength and conditioning coach Ray Wright, for example, played college baseball at Louisiana State University. Shaun Peet, the jackman for Red Bull Racing’s No. 83 team, is a former college and professional hockey player. I could write an entire
column on the various pit crew members who played sports at major colleges and in major conferences, as well as the fact that every major Sprint Cup team has at least one former college or professional athlete pitting its cars. While there are too many to
name, many former athletes have traded in their cleats for firesuits and helped make NASCAR the most competitive form of motorsports in the world, not only on the track but also behind pit wall.
FOR MORE NASCAR GO TO
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