Former football player wins NASCAR pit crew event

May 16, 2008

The Notebook

Former Tech football player Caleb Hurd, who now works in NASCAR as the gas man on Jeff Gordon’s pit crew, combined with catch-can man Jamie Frady to win an individual competition during the Sprint Pit Crew Challenge held Thursday night in Charlotte.

Hurd, who was the holder for Shayne Graham on the Tech team that played for the national championship in 2000, teamed with Frady to fill an 18-gallon tank in 10.031 seconds – a competition record. As a result, he and Frady won $10,000 each.

The individual portion of the challenge also included a jackman competition in which the jackman gets timed lifting both sides of the car, and competitions for changing both the front and rear tires.

The team competition included 24 crews, with the top eight in the Sprint Cup standings getting a bye into the second round. Teams faced each other in head-to-head, single-elimination stops. Brian Vickers’ team edged Denny Hamlin’s team for the team title, changing four tires, filling the car with fuel and pushing it 40 yards in 22.902 seconds to claim a $70,000 first-place prize.

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