Former college football players find a new field: On high-pressure NASCAR pit crews

In early 2018, few months before Andrew Bridgeforth began a career in NASCAR, he was working in construction.

Describing the work as “soul-sucking,” the former Slippery Rock wide receiver also waited tables while living with his aunt in Baltimore. That was until he got a call from Deven Dittrich, a recruiter for Hendrick Motorsports, to see if he was interested in working on a NASCAR pit crew.

Bridgeforth, a graduate of Nazareth (Pa.) High School, hardly knew anything about NASCAR, even though he grew up in Virginia. So he traveled to North Carolina and participated in a combine, similar to the NFL’s version, minus the 40-yard dash. He was one of 100 people to try out and excelled at the combine, thanks to the training he did with Terry Grossetti, a Slippery Rock alumnus who had prepared Bridgeforth for an NFL opportunity a year earlier.

One of four people picked to join Hendrick as a pit crew member in 2018, Bridgeforth serves as a rear tire changer for Alex Bowman’s No. 48 team.

“I would even kind of relate it to golf in that you have to have good technique,” said Bridgeforth, who initially started his NASCAR career as a tire carrier. “Athleticism will only get you so far, but it comes down to technique, repetition, and discipline. Still, in high-pressure situations, there’s a lot of mistakes, and what makes a good pit crew is working well together in sync and then being consistent.

“Hendrick offers us the ability to make pretty darn good money and still continue to have that competitive outlet.”

But he’s not the only former football player with Pennsylvania ties on a NASCAR pit crew. Former Penn State tight end Matt Lehman, a Newport, Pa., native who was a Nittany Lion from 2011 to 2013, is a fueler for Corey Lajoie’s No. 7 team and serves as a backup fueler for Kyle Larson’s No. 5 team. Former Nittany Lions running back Brandon Johnson of Harrisburg is the jack man for Larson’s team.

All three former players have crossed paths one way or another. Lehman’s final season at Penn State was Johnson’s first, and Johnson and Bridgeforth joined NASCAR in 2018 after the tryouts. Johnson and Lehman, former walk-ons, had NFL opportunities but ultimately opted to join Hendrick Motorsports and haven’t looked back.

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“Being a big, strong, fast guy will obviously put you in a better position to be a pit crew member,” Johnson said. “The things that football teaches you — being coachable, discipline, all of those things come into play whenever it comes to pit crew.”

“I didn’t even know that this was an option, but I’m glad that I took the opportunity to continue to compete and be part of an athletic and competitive environment,” Lehman said. “My first contract was five years, and I’ve signed a couple two-year contracts since then, and actually just signed another two-year contract to be with Hendrick over the next two years. I’m looking forward to continuing to do this for as long as I can.”

Former college athletes, specifically football players, make up a large part of NASCAR pit crews.

Each journey to a pit crew is different. For example, Hendrick Motorsports hosts an annual combine to bring in potential pit crew members after getting recommendations from college strength and conditioning programs. Johnson and Lehman were among the players recommended by Penn State’s staff.

Lehman, now in his ninth season on a pit crew, suffered a torn ACL in his final season with Penn State, in 2013. He had an NFL tryout the next year with the Houston Texans under coach Bill O’Brien, who coached Lehman with the Nittany Lions. Injuries continued to hamper the former tight end, and, in 2015, he accepted an invitation from Dittrich, just like Bridgeforth. He was one of eight people to get a job offer that year, and even after the Eagles reached out for a tryout later that summer, Lehman remained committed to NASCAR.

“[NASCAR] is a lot like football; a lot of it all goes into preparation,” said Lehman, now 33. “Race days are kind of like game days in college football. You’re seeing the result of many practices and meetings and just doing all the little things to get better at your craft. Race day, when we’re about to pit, the car is just the combination of all that coming together. I don’t get too nervous anymore or anything like that. We’re prepared and ready to pit the car.”

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Johnson signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 2016 but was cut and spent the next two years looking for his next football opportunity, which never came. Although he originally passed on a chance to join the pit crew program as a senior at Penn State, he still participated in the Hendrick combine in 2016. He decided to return a few years later, once he no longer wanted to chase football, and the change in paths has paid off.

“I was definitely one of those kids growing up that it was football, football, football. Football was Plan A, B, C, and nothing else,” Johnson said. “I’ve had many friends that football did not turn out the way that they had hoped. And things got bad for them. Things got bad for me. So to have a backup plan like this, like NASCAR that is very similar to football, it’s a blessing, and I’m very thankful for it.

“I would just like for more people to know that this opportunity exists.”

For Bridgeforth, who appeared in 19 games as a wide receiver for Slippery Rock, the transition to NASCAR hasn’t been completely smooth. He admits that the five-lug-nut tires gave him problems early in his career, but he has flourished with the single-lug-nut tires NASCAR introduced in 2021 to make pit stops safer for crew members.

The 30-year-old credits the coaching and the belief Hendrick Motorsports continued to have in him, despite the challenges he faced as a rear-tire changer.

“I’m blessed to have been at Hendrick, because maybe if I was at some other teams and I didn’t have the coaches and support that I had, they would have just been like, ‘Nah, you don’t got it’ after the first or second year,” Bridgeforth said. “We have unlimited resources to make a habit to develop somebody, and I don’t know a lot of other teams that have the amount of resources that we do.”

NASCAR pit stops are as fast as eight seconds. There are five key positions in a pit crew: the fueler, the jack man, two tire changers, and a tire carrier. When the cars’ tires changed from five lug nuts to one, it drastically lowered the average pit stop from 12 to 16 seconds to now about eight to 11 seconds.

Every position presents its own challenges. For Lehman, his prerace routine is filling four gas cans that weigh 95-100 pounds each, and using his upper-body strength to fuel the car during a pit stop. As a jack man, Johnson puts a lot of physical demand on his body to crank the car into the air to allow for tire changes to happen, while Bridgeforth, as a tire changer, has to be quick and dexterous to take one tire off, drill in another, and repeat the process on the opposite side.

Like football, they are put into high-pressure situations. But their weekly preparation, from reviewing the previous Sunday’s races early in the week to pit stop practices from Tuesday to Thursday, mirrors their schedules from high school and college football.

“It’s definitely one of those things that you cannot think about. I think you need enough practice reps toward it becoming second nature,” said Johnson, 31. “Whenever that car comes and stops in the pit stall, you do not have time to think. You just have to react. And if you are thinking, nine times out of 10, you are probably going to mess up the stop.”

Added Lehman: “The heat plays a factor; the weight of the equipment plays a factor. And then being able to move fast while carrying that weight … it’s definitely demanding. And so we try to stay up on our hydration and taking care of ourselves and nutrition.”

Being on a pit crew brings a varying amount of success. Lehman was a fueler for Matt Crafton, the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series champion. Johnson was a part of Larson’s pit crew that won the Cup Series championship in 2021, while Bridgeforth recently experienced his first Cup Series win as an over-the-wall pit crew member a few weeks ago at the Chicago Street Race.

Five regular-season races remain until NASCAR’s playoffs begin in September. Bridgeforth and Johnson’s drivers already clinched playoff spots, while Lehman and Lajoie are 30th in the point standings. But there’s a good chance all three will be over the wall through October for their teams’ playoff hunts for the Cup Series championship.