Quinton Washington's new job (and isn't football)
This might be the most unique job I've seen a former Michigan player take on. He's been hired by IndyCar driver Will Powers to work in his pit crew.
"A four-year letter winner for the Wolverines while playing at defensive tackle under former coach Brady Hoke, the 2013 graduate has found a new home in another sport. His job is quite simple: Whenever Power comes in for a pit stop, its Washington's responsibility to put gas in the vehicle."
I'd give you the link but the article is up on the Free Press website and we all know how that goes.
Great story. Never really thought about it before, but it seems totally logical that a football player's physique and skill set would transfer perfectly to being on a racing pit crew.
You're equipped to deal with loud noises.
I don't even know what the heck you are talking about.
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Who's Power?
EDIT: OP Edited post and now my question is answered.
A dude who makes race cars go very very very fast. He came in second in the Indy 500 last week.
Hell, I don't know a damned thing about car racing but even I know that.
Yeah, the original post I read only had the text after the picture.
Thanks for sharing, this kind of thing is awesome.
Harbaugh seems like he is in to anything that involves competition and I love it.
That's actually really cool.
Way to go, Q!
This is sweet. I'm honestly curious as to how much a job like this pays.
According to NPR piece (linked below) the top guys can crack 6 figures.
| Event | Salaries |
| Crew Cheif | $5,000 Per Race ($40,000 Annual Earnings) |
| Car Cheif | $4,000 Per Race ($35,000 Annual Earnings) |
The other people who are the parts of Crew earn some where round about $500 per race to $1,000 . From a tire changer to oil refuelling person .
Other Benefits :
- The Crew Members get extra if the team perform’s well from the Sponsors
- There are bonus settle for the better and faster crew members
- In-case of Injury they got free treatment
guessed double that at least for Crew Chief and Car Chief. But I don't follow racing, so what do I know. What's the source? The math doesn't quite work out. 5K per race for 40K annual equates to 8 races total for crew chief? But car chief works 8.75 races? Seems like there are more races than that but again I don't follow closely.
And how benevolent of racing to cover a guy's medical expenses, you know, if he gets hit by a frickin' race car on the job. "We can't give you a raise, big fella, but we'll put your body back together when you get run over. No charge!"
Anyway, cool story for Quinton. I guess I just found someone to root for at the 500 next year.
proof readers over on that blog. It's like foreign language got put through Google translator. Random cap letters. Tense errors. Unecessary possessive apostrohpes. I have no idea what the second bullet event means. What's "bonus settle?"
Other Benefits :
- The Crew Members get extra if the team perform’s well from the Sponsors
- There are bonus settle for the better and faster crew members
- In-case of Injury they got free treatment
There are 41 races on this year's NASCAR schedule and 16 IndyCar races, not counting practice time which I would assume is compensated in some way. So yes, it seems like those numbers are off.
Got a feeling this guy makes more than the dude working the pump at the local Mobil station.
The timing of this is just odd -- I went down the youtube rabbit hole yesterday and ended up watching videos on pit lane disasters. Fuel man is damn scary.
It looks like he's slimmed down from his 300lb. playing weight at nose. He looks lean and mean.
If this topic interested you, check out this story NPR did last year.
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Thanks for the info.
I wish him the best & hope he's having a blast.
My friend's little brother ( and i say little only in age seeing as he was about 260 lbs) was a few years younger than us and a really good football player. Played D Line at an ACC school and then about 3 or so years in the NFL. He's been on a Nascar crew now for about 7or 8 years as a tire carrier. He worked for Dale Jr's team for a bit and now is onto another Nascar team. Its not uncommon for ex college athletes to be on the pit crews. I know the bigger Nascar teams have athletic trainers that work with the pit crew members full time. They did a peice about this on either Real Sports or the 60 Minutes Sports that runs on Showtime. Some of the pit crew members can make 6 figures, at least in Nascar. Not sure about Indy league.
I was surprised that Quinton did not play in the NFL. He certainly has the body and strength for it. Perhaps he did not really want that.
Good for him, he has a great future in Racing.
Racing is Life. Everything else is just waiting.
I met Quinton at a watch party in Greensboro last year. He was looking for work (in social work, I believe). He was there with his girl and their young child. I think they moved after she took a new job elsewhere, as we didn't see them again.
Softspoken, but a really nice young man. Very respectful.
At least when our graduates pump gas...it's cool!
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