NASCAR: Brown latest football player to become tire changer

Former Penn State running back Journey Brown will serve as the front tire changer on the Kaulig Racing No. 31 NASCAR Cup car at Talladega.

Brown, who was forced into retirement three years ago due to a heart condition, is expected to continue in that role for the final six races of the season, according to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. Trackhouse Racing originally reached out to Brown in 2022 about training to become a pit crew member.

After a year’s worth of training with Shaun Peet, pit coach at Trackhouse Racing, Brown got the call-up for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Aug. 26. Trackhouse Racing, which provides pit crews for Kaulig Racing, assigned Brown to be the front tire changer for the No. 13 car piloted by Chandler Smith.

“This kid is going to be the best [tire] changer in NASCAR,” Peet said, via NBC Sports. “And I believe it when he says it. … This kid, he does the things that make him successful.”

While transitioning from football to NASCAR sounds like quite the audible, Brown feels right at home.

“It’s actually surprising how many football players are in NASCAR. And a lot of them played at the levels I did and even higher,” Brown recently said, via The Sun. So when I first came in and explained my story, they understood because they had to call it quits at some point too. So for them it was like playing a broken record because they know how it feels.

“When you play football and it’s cut short, it’s all the same story. There’s a lot of similarities in ‘How do you give it up?’ They understand me better than anybody.”

Brown, who played for Penn State from 2017-20, had his best season in 2019, when he rushed for 890 yards on 129 carries and scored 12 touchdowns. The highlight of Brown’s football career came when he rushed for a school bowl game record 202 yards and two scores in his 53-39 win over Memphis. His efforts earned him the game’s Offensive MVP.

Brown had a bright future at Penn State. Then, he was forced to retire in the fall of 2020 right before the season due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which according to MayoClinic, is “a disease in which the heart muscle becomes thickened (hypertrophied). As the heart muscle thickens, it makes the heart muscle harder to pump blood.”

As he’s started his new career as a pit crew member, Brown’s been working with Advent Health to promote the importance of EKG for younger athletes as a way to help save lives.

Advent Health featured Brown in a documentary From the Gridiron to the Garage, where he chronicled his upbringing in a football family in Meadville, Pennsylvania, as well as finding out about his health issue that cut short his NFL dream, and pursuing a pit career.

The Kaulig Cup car will be driven by Justin Haley. As for Journey Brown, he’ll be on the pit crew for the rest of the season for the Kaulig racing team as he progresses on his new career journey.