When N.F.L. Dreams End, NASCAR’s Pit Crews Beckon

D.J. Twitty was taking it all in: the jackmen lifting the racecars, the whizzing of air guns screwing in lug nuts, the slinging of 50-pound wheels. For a South Carolina native like the 24-year-old Twitty, the cacophonous scene was just this side of paradise.

“I’m ready to make this my home,” Twitty said. He was one of 55 recruits who attended the annual pit crew combine for Hendrick Motorsports. The auto racing team’s coaches and trainers use the all-day event in June — and a smaller, three-day minicamp held last week — to find a half dozen or so athletes capable of jumping onto a track, gassing a car and changing tires in less than 10 seconds.

Twitty, a former running back at the University of South Carolina, was in attendance because Hendrick and other teams have learned that former football players often make the best prospects for five-man crews, thanks to their strength, agility and speed. So teams scour college campuses looking for players like Twitty who didn’t catch on with an N.F.L. team and want to trade their football helmets for fireproof suits. A few, like Twitty, know about NASCAR — he grew up rooting for the driver Denny Hamlin — but most are new to the sport and can barely change the oil on their own cars.

“You don’t grow up playing pit crew in your backyard,” said Keith Flynn, Hendrick’s developmental pit crew director, who has recruited athletes for 14 years. “Most of these football guys had no idea that this is even an opportunity. But once they come on campus and see the place, they get pretty excited.”

NASCAR races can cover up to 600 miles, with cars zipping around the track approaching 200 miles per hour. Yet races are often won by seconds, or even slivers of a second, and a slower pit stop can cost teams hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money and potential sponsorships. Every second saved in a stop is worth about 20 car lengths on the track.

Last season, the average margin of victory was 1.11 seconds, and it was under one second in 19 of the 36 races. The margin of victory was under one second in 10 of the 23 races so far this season.