{"id":116200,"date":"2025-06-09T14:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T14:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/116200\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T14:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T14:00:14","slug":"forgotten-pittsburgh-steelers-star-unrecognizable-in-his-very-different-career-as-nascar-mechanic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/116200\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten Pittsburgh Steelers star unrecognizable in his very different career as Nascar mechanic"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOR many NFL hopefuls, not making it to the league isn’t the end of the line.<\/p>\n

For many of them, Nascar<\/a> is the second chance to use their athleticism in a team environment.<\/p>\n

\"Pittsburgh<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Marshall McFadden transitioned from the NFL to NascarCredit: Getty\"NASCAR<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

McFadden went from linebacker for the Steelers to Nascar jackmanCredit: Instagram\/mmcfadden5<\/p>\n

Going down the list of pit crews, you’ll find plenty of former college football<\/a> players and other types of athletes.<\/p>\n

In some cases, you’ll even find former pro athletes.<\/p>\n

That is the case of former NFL<\/a> linebacker Marshall McFadden.<\/p>\n

McFadden was a star player at South Carolina State, where he won three MEAC Championships.<\/p>\n

He went undrafted in 2011, but eventually made it to the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> in 2012.<\/p>\n

In 2013 he joined the Las Vegas Raiders and then played with the Los Angeles Rams in 2014.<\/p>\n

He played a total of 10 games in the NFL, compiling seven total tackles.<\/p>\n

McFadden then played in the Canadian Football League before ending his career in 2017.<\/p>\n

However, friends introduced McFadden to Nascar, and he quickly made a new career for himself.<\/p>\n

“I was living in Charlotte, North Carolina \u2013 that\u2019s where the national headquarters of NASCAR is,” McFadden told Steelers Takeaways<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin teases Nascar retirement with ‘plans’ in place after 44-year-old legend wins back-to-back races<\/p>\n

“I grew up in Lamar, a short distance away. My friend was involved in NASCAR and when he heard I was back he asked if I would be interested in trying out the crew side of NASCAR…<\/p>\n

“I kept practicing, and then they inserted me into a crew and told me that if I was serious I could do well and earn a contract, which I did afterwards.”<\/p>\n

McFadden shared that working on a pit crew is very similar to playing on a football team.<\/p>\n

“Football taught me a lot about being on a team \u2013 being on time and doing your assignments correctly,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You all have to be in sync \u2013 if you mess up you can lose a game because of it.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

“NASCAR is the same way \u2013 just less physical! You have to change four tires and fill the gas tank in 11-to-12 seconds. <\/p>\n

“One second can cost you a race. You have to be very precise. <\/p>\n

“Just like football, we train all week, watch film and then go out and do our job on game-race days.”<\/p>\n

McFadden is the jackman for Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 car, which AJ Allmendinger drives.<\/p>\n

He was notably on the pit crew for Michael McDowell for his 2021 Daytona 500<\/a> win.<\/p>\n

\"Marshall<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

McFadden was part of a Daytona 500 winCredit: Instagram\/mmcfadden5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOR many NFL hopefuls, not making it to the league isn’t the end of the line. For many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,15203,6,520,57,2360,578,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-116200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nascar","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-section-sportamerican-football","15":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114653772326745954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}