KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- During a typical pit stop, NASCAR crew members hoist two 11-gallon, 80-pound cans of fuel, haul 50-pound tires and carry a 20-pound hydraulic jack from the pit wall and set it under the car.
It takes quick, strong, poised and sure-handed athletes to perform those duties in 14 pressure-packed seconds.
And that's exactly who NASCAR teams are scouting, recruiting and signing -- former college athletes, notably football and hockey players -- to execute jobs that mechanics and former drivers once handled.
The money is good. The six over-the-wall crew members -- two tire carriers, two tire changers, a gasman and a jackman -- can earn anywhere from $75,000 to $80,000 a season, depending on the team and how much success it has.
The two Red Bull Racing Camry teams employ three former college football players and a former college and professional hockey player.
Here are their stories:
Wes Evans, football
Evans, a tight end and fullback at Arizona State, was in the Sun Devils' weight room in his sophomore year when several Red Bull Racing pit crew members who were in Phoenix for a race came in for a workout.
"They were recruiting athletes," said Evans, who is from Reno, Nev. "They talked to my strength coach about what kind of guys they look for. He gave them my name. I knew nothing about (NASCAR). They told me this was a job opportunity. ... "I thought I was going to play football forever and retire playing that, but the end of my football career was looming, so I gave these guys a call."
Red Bull originally trained Evans as a jackman.
"But we have two really good jackmen," he said, "so I picked up gassing ... doing everything I could to get a starting spot."
In addition to filling the tank of the No. 83 Sprint Cup car driven by Brian Vickers, Evans, 25, serves as jackman for Red Bull Nationwide driver Justin Allgeier's team and Cole Whitt's Camping World Truck Series team.
In the course of a week, the pit crews work and train like a football team at the shop in Mooresville, N.C.
"It's still being in a team atmosphere," said Evans. "We practice, we break down film of practice, we break down game film ... or race film. ... We work out, train and practice. ... It's a similar schedule to what I had in college.
Evans, who is 6 feet 3 and 235 pounds, thinks there is a carryover from blocking and tackling to gassing a car and jacking it up for the handful of pit stops in a race.
"You have to be so precise, every single time," Evans said. "There is very little room for mistake and error. If you equate it to a football team running three plays ... it's all you've got."
Evans, who has a degree in marketing and mass communications, is unsure of his future, because Red Bull is closing down its NASCAR operation after this season. But for now, he's enjoying the job.
"A lot of people don't know what I do until I bring friends out to races," he said. "A lot of people think the drivers get gas at a pump. ... How tough is that?"
Shaun Peet, hockey
Peet, a defenseman, was playing minor-league hockey for the Greensboro Generals in the heart of stock-car country and was sitting in the stands while serving an 18-game suspension for fighting when he met some NASCAR personnel.
They suggested Peet apply his skills to working with a pit crew, and he attacks his job as the jackman on the No. 83 team with the same zeal as he did as an enforcer on the rink.
"It's such a great way to extend your athletic career," said Peet, who spent eight years in the minor leagues, including a stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins' American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes Barre, Pa., following a college career at Dartmouth in the Ivy League.
"You're still part of a team. You still get that adrenaline rush. You travel all over the country, and you get paid well to do it. It's something a lot of athletes don't think of. You look at the cars. ... A big complaint the last couple of years is the cars can't pass each other. But they can pass 'em in the pits, so there is a huge emphasis on performance in the pits."
Over the last two years of his hockey career, Peet, 36, participated in both sports.
"I played hockey in Albuquerque (N.M.) my last two years, and I'd miss training camp and the first couple months of the hockey season," he said, "As soon as Homestead was over, I'd drive all the way to Albuquerque, play hockey and, with playoffs, miss the first four races of the year. The race team said, 'You're done with hockey.'."
Pete, a 6-foot-2, 230-pounder from Vancouver Island, B.C., also serves as a strength and conditioning coach for Red Bull and eventually wants to return to hockey as a coach.
"I want to do this as long as I'm having fun," Peet said. "I thought I'd do it for a couple of years and get involved in hockey. But I never quit having fun doing this.
"I started coaching one of the Nationwide teams, and some of the kids started calling me, 'Coach,' and I said, 'No, don't call me Coach unless I'm wearing skates and a whistle."'
Oh, and about that 18-game suspension. What exactly happened?
"I was sticking up for a guy, and it escalated out of control," said Peet, who sports a scar on his forehead that's a reminder of the 135 stitches it took to close wounds from two incidents in one game.
"I got kicked in the face with a skate, and no sooner had I got it sewed up, there was a two-on-one, I went down to block and got kicked in the face. I got sewed up. We're playing Amarillo. Their team's idiot runs our goalie, so I'm the first one there. I draw my gloves. We go at it, Boom ... 60 stitches the first time ... another 75. ... They didn't even have to re-freeze it."
Who knew it would be safer jacking a car in the pits at a stock-car race than skating on a hockey rink?
"When you get out in front of those cars ... it's an adrenaline rush," Peet said. "It's pretty exhilarating."
Mike Metcalf, football
Metcalf spent 2003 and 2004 as a running back at Appalachian State, and after getting his degree in finance and banking, he was confident he could land a job in his hometown of Charlotte, N.C., a banking center.
"But I would have been stuck in a cubicle probably on the 87th floor of some building punching walls out, because I was bored out of my mind," Metcalf said.
So he kept working and made a connection with a trainer who had worked with Carolina Panthers football players and was going to train pit crews for Evernham Motorsports.
"I had never seen a race, never watched one," Metcalf said. "I'm from Charlotte. Racing is in the back yard there, but I knew nothing about it. They said, 'Here's a tire, here's a jack, here's an air gun. See if you like it.' I picked up on it relatively quickly, and thought it would be something I would be good at."
It also made it easier for Metcalf, 29, that several other college teammates, including quarterback Richie Williams, were working for race teams.
Metcalf, 5-9 and 205, has worked as a jackman and tire carrier, but is most comfortable toting the gas cans. That's his job for the No. 4 Sprint Cup car driven by Kasey Kahne.
"Somehow I've found a home as a fueler," he said. "I take pride in that and will stick with that for now."
Metcalf is one of the few black members of NASCAR teams, and he hopes other young minority athletes take notice.
"You try to encourage young kids I know to think outside the box, and don't limit yourself based on what you see in the world around you," Metcalf said. "Do something you want to do, and go for it."
Metcalf isn't sure how much longer he'll be gassing race cars.
"Right now I'm trying to figure out if there's a way for me to slide into the finance department," he said. "I have the degree for it. Even doing this, I get to play with numbers all day. ... That's part of the fun of being a gasman. Hopefully there is a way to transition."
Trey Burklin, football
Burklin sat on the bench for two years as a quarterback at the University of Miami behind Brock Berlin and Kyle Wright during 2004-05 when he decided to move back to his hometown of Charlotte.
"I figured out the NFL wasn't going to be in my future," Burklin said. "So I decided to focus on academics and transferred to UNC-Charlotte. Being in Charlotte, I knew about racing, but I had no idea what was behind the scenes."
Burklin received a call from Mike Metcalf, who told him that Red Bull was looking for former college athletes, and he decided to try it in 2007. He's the jackman for the No. 4 team.
"I don't know if the football skills specifically translate," said Burklin, 6-3 and 205 pounds. "But it's like athletic movement in every sport ... soccer ... baseball. ... As long as you can move your feet and have good hand-eye coordination, it's pretty easy.
"For a 26-year-old single guy without a family, it's been great. For a 35-year-old guy, I don't know if it's great. I like to travel, so it's working out."
Burklin has a degree in finance, and he spends half of his time training with the race team and the other half in the marketing department.
His future is up in the air because Red Bull is shutting down.
"Next year is a little bit of a worry," Burklin said. "You have to have faith something will work out. I'm talking to the right people inside and outside the sport. Hopefully I can get something worked out."
"I'd love to do something with my degree. At 35, I have a hard time seeing myself still doing this."
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