Georgia Tech offensive lineman is skipping his senior season to join a NASCAR pit crew

Believe it or not, there are some D-I college football players whose dreams don’t include making it in the NFL. One of those is Georgia Tech offensive lineman Eason Fromayan. Fromayan, a redshirt junior, will forgo his senior season of football to pursue a career in — wait for it — a NASCAR pit crew.

According to ESPN former football players joining pit crews at speedways isn’t all that uncommon. In fact, a good chunk of pit crew members are made up of former gridiron players.

As NASCAR pit crews have increasingly turned to athletes to fill their spots, the options have opened up for former football players. One NASCAR coach estimated former football players make up 35-40 percent of pit crews, and that number is growing. Fromayan compared the competition to earn a spot to recruiting and signing day, where racing teams hold combines and vie for the services of the best athletes available.

There are a few recognizable players who successfully went from the sideline to pit row, including former Wake Forest linebacker Dion Williams and former NC State tight end Asa Watson, who had short-lived stints in August 2014 with the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots, but was waived when the season began. Williams is now on Jeff Gordon’s pit crew, and Watson works for NASCAR driver Bobby Labonte.

Williams met Fromayan at a race in Atlanta in 2015, which was when the NASCAR bug was planted for the GT offensive tackle.

Fromayan was walking in the pits. Williams noticed his Orange Bowl ring from the win over Mississippi State. The two started talking, and Williams told Fromayan about what he needed to do to work on a pit crew.

Last year, Fromayan interned at the Atlanta Motorsports Park as a corner worker, which essentially entails watching a part of the race to make sure it was accident free, and that drivers were racing clean. Fromayan has already earned his degree from Georgia Tech.

“I guess it’s unusual to cut a career early like that, but I’m graduated and everything,” Fromayan said via ESPN. “We can end it on a high note. You never know what can happen coming up, so if there’s an opportunity to better my situation, it seems right to take it.”

It’s not the most traditional post-college football career choice, but you’ve gotta give props to Fromayan to following his passion into a potential career. Georgia Tech and Fromayan will face Kentucky in this year’s TaxSlayer Bowl.