Former Crimson Tide football walk-on now on pit crew for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Crimson Tide practice with # 82 Harrison Jones and #48 Rowdy Harrell. (Photo courtesy of Lyndsey Pugh)
Rowdy Harrell was approaching the end of a walk-on football career at the University of Alabama. Despite having collected three national championship rings, the former Hale County High linebacker had little, if any, time on the field.
But the Moundville native now finds himself “playing on Sundays” while following a different career track. Harrell is a member of a NASCAR pit crew, the rear tire carrier for the No. 88 car of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The former Crimson Tide football player was back in the state Sunday for the NASCAR Sprint Cup-GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Earnhardt wrecked on lap 50 and wound up finishing last.
Harrell followed NASCAR until he was about 10 or 12 years old, when his focus shifted to football. His prep football career netted him interest from West Alabama and Memphis and “little places like that.”
“Ultimately,” he said, “I decided to walk on” at Alabama.
Former Crimson Tide football walk-on now on pit crew for Dale Earnhardt Jr. from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
Thus began “absolutely the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Harrell recalled. “It taught me the value of hard work. I know what it’s like to go through something that tries to break you mentally and physically and you come out on the other side.”
Harrell’s endurance didn’t pay off with playing time but he had the time of his life as coach Nick Saban led the Crimson Tide to national titles in three of his four seasons from 2009 to 2012.
The Moundville native knew he didn’t have a career as a pro football player in his future. He had his sights on becoming a strength coach and Tide strength coach Scott Cochran was his mentor.
Cochran initially steered Harrell to a job as a strength coach in North Carolina.
“I told him it was too far from home,” the former linebacker said. “Then he called me back in his office a couple of days later and said, ‘I’ve got a better opportunity for you. You need to check it out.’”
That opportunity was in NASCAR and Harrell initially brushed it off. According to mmqb.si.com, Cochran and Saban recommended their walk-on linebacker to Chris Burkey, an emissary from Hendrick Motorsports.
“I had no idea about a pit crew,” he recalled. “I’m not a mechanic. I have no idea about cars so I was really skeptical.”
That was before he realized that pit crew members are athletes, able to handle the physical tasks associated with keeping a race car at its best as its driver is bidding to win the race.
A trip to Charlotte showed him all he needed to know.
“I saw how everything was run,” he said. “I knew it was going to be for me.”
He found a career that was similar to what he had experienced on the gridiron. A pit crew is comprised of six persons – one to prop up the car, one to top it off, two to change the tires and two more to deliver the fresh tires and remove the spent wheels.
“You’re relying on your guys,” he said. “It’s a team effort. There’s one goal and you’ve got a lot of guys working to get to that goal.
“In football, it’s 11 on the field at once. Here, it’s six all the time – the same six guys. You’re closer knit because there are only a few of us. But it’s very similar.”
