NFL and NASCAR are two sports that could not be any more different from one another. However, a lot of former football players find their way to the pinnacle of stock car racing as pit crew members. It’s nothing new for the sport.
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Today, the top Cup Series teams like Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing all have football players as pit crew members. The job isn’t any less challenging than that of an NFL athlete.
These football players are chosen for the pit crew roles thanks to their strength and agility. After all, they have to get a heavy-stock car up, change all four tires, and refuel it all within 10 seconds.
Motorsports is a game of fine margins and even the slightest delays can be catastrophic for the team. Speed is the name of the game but precision is just as important. A lot of times, they make top drivers like Kyle Larson successful.
The #5 driver is perhaps the strongest favorite to win the championship this season and he too has ex-NFL players working in his pit crew.
His jackman, Brandon Johnson, used to be the RB for the Steelers, now has the most important pit crew role on the winningest team so far this season. He is just one example of how crucial these former NFL players are to the Cup Series title hopefuls.
A lot has changed in NASCAR in recent times concerning pit crews. The process of changing tires has been altered due to the Next-Gen car.
Tires only have one lug nut now which has made the jackman more important than the tire changer since he has to keep the car jacked up until the job is done. A single lug nut means that crews take less time to execute a stop, making it a game of fine margins.
Precision over athleticism for ex-NFL athletes in NASCAR
Before this car was introduced, engineers of top teams found ways mechanically for the car to have an advantage over the pack. That has been thrown out of the window with the Next-Gen car.
Everyone has equal machinery which has made the pit crew’s job all the more crucial. For example, Denny Hamlin suffered a slow stop at the Las Vegas race last weekend and finished P8. Now, he is 27 points behind the cutline.
“It’s all about being fast; how fast you can get the tires on, how fast can you get around the car but also be precise,” JGR team boss Joe Gibbs had said earlier.
Intriguingly, Gibbs used to be a 3x Superbowl-winning coach in the NFL before coming over to NASCAR as a team owner. His connections have certainly helped him land some reliable crew members.
Gibbs understands the changes one needs to make to their training routine to be successful in NASCAR from the NFL. Athleticism plays a huge role in the latter but there is little room for that in stock car racing. It’s all about speed and precision.
Getting used to that can take a while to get used to which is why the big teams also have extensive training programs to make sure that their pit crew is in the best shape possible.
