Hampton, Georgia (WRDW/WAGT) One former Georgia Bulldog is looking for a way to stay competitive after leaving football.
We spoke with Jackman Nate McBride during the Ambetter Health 400 race weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
McBride and the pit crew for the No. 34 car watched and waited as the cars passed at 180 mph.
“I’ve always compared the pit crew to offensive linemen. They don’t get all the credit, but you can tell when they make mistakes,” he explained.
The football analogy is fitting because he is from that world. McBride played linebacker for the Georgia Bulldogs.
“Football is a lifetime sport until it isn’t, so we spent our entire childhood playing it. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” McBride explained.
He’d been on a team for almost his entire life, ever since he started playing football at the age of six.
When graduation approached, McBride thought he was done competing, until a recruiter suggested he try out for a different type of team.
“If there’s anybody that’s not going to the league, tell them to come try out for NASCAR, and I was like, ah well, I never watched it growing up, but I figured I’d give it a try,” he went on to say.
Athletes who have played other sports are used by crews all along pit road.
“This is such a good avenue into continuing that competitiveness,” McBride said in a statement.
As the warning to end Stage 1 appeared in the Ambetter Health 400, the No. 34 crew prepared, knowing how much of an impact they were about to make.
“We could go from being first in a race, and you mess up a pit stop, and you’re in 20th,” McBride went on to say.
You must work as a team to change four tires and fuel without making any mistakes in about ten seconds. McBride is grateful to have found one.
“It’s been the best decision I ever made, the Lord blessed me with this opportunity, and I’m truly loving it,” he told reporters.
According to McBride, four of the five guys on the No. 34 pit crew played another sport.
Three played college football, and one played in Minor League Baseball.
Leave a Reply