CONCORD, North Carolina — It takes power and finesse to make a NASCAR pit crew team.
Thirteen college athletes from eight schools competed in the third annual NASCAR Drive for Diversity National Pit Crew Combine at the NASCAR Research and Development Center on May 25. Participants came from North Carolina A&T, Alcorn State, Winston-Salem State, and Bethune-Cookman universities as well as Morehouse College, Kentucky Christian and Virginia University of Lynchburg, who participated in tryouts earlier in the spring. Success in the combine results in an invitation for further training throughout 2018.
“One of the biggest things to bringing an athlete into NASCAR is, because they know how to perform when a car comes down in first place, they can go out in first place,” said Drive for Diversity Crew Development Program coach Phil Horton, who is also director of athletic performance at Rev Racing. “Not only from the athletic standpoint—the bigger, stronger, faster athlete—but the mindset to be able to perform under pressure, and make sure that their car and their team is successful at winning.”
Templates for college athletes who would likely perform well as a pit crew member primarily center on football players for men, and softball and basketball players for women. Nine of the combine’s 13 participants played football.
“Basketball players tend to be a little bit too tall, unless they are a point guard, and they’re probably out of the equation,” Horton said. “It just depends on how well they fit in that template of what we’re trying to do, which includes finesse for the changers, power positions for the carriers and finesse and power for the jackmen. There’s a lot that goes into that, and especially trying to find that type of individual who can make that happen.”
Said A&T’s Joshua Patrick, a linebacker who earned a pair of HBCU national championships with the Aggies: “It’s definitely comparable to the technique of the sport. It’s definitely a technique that you have to master.”
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