{"id":12112,"date":"2020-10-26T17:10:19","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T21:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=12112"},"modified":"2020-11-11T16:46:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T21:46:04","slug":"in-the-pits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/in-the-pits\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Pits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During my football career at Monmouth, we spent hours each week practicing, watching film, and lifting weights preparing to compete for 60 minutes on Saturday. I didn\u2019t know it then, but I was also training for something even bigger: 12 seconds on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been a pit crew member for Team Penske since 2015. These days, I\u2019m the jack man for the No. 2 car, Brad Keselowski, in the NASCAR Cup Series. On race day, the pit crew refuels the car and changes the tires as quickly as possible. If we\u2019re at the top of our game, it takes us about 12 seconds. As with football, countless hours of preparation go into that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Gray worked his way up through the ARCA, Truck, and Xfinity series before spending the last three years in the Cup Series.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On Mondays, we watch film from the previous race, dissecting every movement we made during pit stops to ascertain how we can improve. If we\u2019re struggling, we might run a few reps in our indoor facility in North Carolina, where there\u2019s a pit stop area. Then we\u2019ll head to the weight room with our strength coach. The rest of prep week is similar: running practice reps, doing strength training and conditioning, and watching more film. Any fraction of a second we can shave off our time is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday is a day to relax, eat well, and hydrate. It\u2019s unbelievably hot down on the track\u2014especially in our fireproof suits\u2014so we have to make sure we\u2019re hydrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early in the morning on race day, the pit crew and coaches board a 40-passenger private jet to fly to that week\u2019s location. Once there, we head straight to the track to set up the pit box, review strategy with the crew chief, check equipment, and prep the tires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the race starts, it\u2019s all about staying focused and having confidence in your ability. If you have a bad pit stop, you can\u2019t let it dictate the rest of the race. You need to attack the next stop. The driver, crew chief, mechanics, and road crew\u2014those guys worked their tails off all week and are depending on you to perform your best. A car\u2019s time in the pits can mean the difference between victory and 10th place. So we have to execute at the highest possible level every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m still amazed at how playing football at Monmouth prepared me for a career that I didn\u2019t even know existed at the time. There\u2019s a great book, The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy, and I\u2019m living proof of one of his theories. He says that you may not know what you\u2019re going to do three or five years from now, but if you work really hard at whatever it is you are doing, you\u2019ll create opportunities for yourself that will shape your future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love my job, I\u2019m confident in myself, and I can\u2019t imagine doing anything else this fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos courtesy of Pat Gray<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A NASCAR jack man details life in the fast lane. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":12117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":55,\"y\":62}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[93],"class_list":["post-12112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-back","tag-alumni-donor-profiles"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"The Back","issue":"Fall 2020","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12112"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12147,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12112\/revisions\/12147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}