After sustaining eight concussions racing motocross, 24-year-old T.J. Ford thought it was time for a career change.

Well, a NASCAR crewman may appear safer, however, injuries are still prevalent and

The original coach

Andy Papathanassiou was a Stanford grad who wanted to work in NASCAR. When he saw pit stops were much like a football play without the coaching, he knew where he could make his mark.

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Ford learned last season that he is not immune to the dangers of pit road where 3,500-pound stock cars are speeding past your backside, inches from your head, operated with limited visibility.

During his third year as a jack man for the No. 15 of Paul Menard, under contract with Dale Earnhardt Inc., Ford nearly saw stars when he was knocked off his feet while trying to jack the car in September during the California fall race.

He's fine now -- now, being the key word.

When pit stalls are tight and cars are coming in hot, crewmen faces a range of injuries; some highly publicized and others barely a mention around the garage. From blown knees and back injuries to burns and finger jams, crewmen are increasingly seeing more injuries as the pace and competition increases.

Speaking of burnt fingers ... ask Jon Lucas at Haas CNC Racing about that.

He's all too familiar with burnt fingers when grabbing a literally smoking hot tire rim off the car when the driver has been off and on the brakes for miles on a short track like Martinsville Speedway.

"Yeah, I've been burned through my gloves before, especially at Martinsville. The guys are on the brakes hard and often."

And with new injuries, new safety rules follow.

"It's just part of the job," said Ford who was clipped by the No. 40 car of David Stremme that fateful day at California and had to be replaced by another crewmen. Ford said he jumped off the right side of the wall, as usual, and went down with the jack to the rear tire when Stremme's car made contact.

"He hit me and took me straight off the ground," Ford said.

A week before he sustained his injury, Ford said he tweaked his knee doing squats, typical conditioning for a jack man. That may have caused his knee to be more vulnerable at the time of the incident, but training is vital to a jack man responsible for boosting 3,500-pound machines off the ground in just seconds.

The following Monday, Stremme apologized to Ford and that was the end of it. Although, Ford said more needs to be done.

The sport has improved pit road safety standards; reducing pit road speeds, adding safety equipment, etc., Ford said, but more needs to be done to protect the crewmen of NASCAR, which the sanctioning body often refers to as the "unsung heroes" of the sport.

In the mainstream world where men and women where Dockers and button-ups, not fire suits and helmets, workers compensation laws and unions protect them if and when they are injured and can't work. Compensation funds keep them afloat while on the mend.

As for a crewman in the NASCAR game; pit at your own risk.

"With one bad hit, a guy's career could be over; it's not like the NFL." Ford said. "We are out there putting on a show just as much as the drivers and [we] need taken care of as well."

Of course Ford, or Lucas, is not alone in all of this. Last season alone, several injuries caught the attention of fans and broadcasters.

At the Dover International Speedway's fall race, Art Harris, gas man for Michael Waltrip's No. 55 crew, was loaded on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a hospital after he was hit in the head by a bouncing tire during a pit stop (watch video).

Josh Yost, the jack man for driver Jeff Burton, underwent surgery on his left ankle following a pit-road incident during last season's Daytona 500.

NASCAR reacted with safety requirements and improvements.

Making it safer

In 2002, NASCAR implemented the first rule requiring all crew members to wear helmets, Before this, helmets, as well as all other safety equipment, were recommended but not required.

The issue became paramount in 2001 after three Robert Yates Racing crewmen and a NASCAR official were struck on pit road at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Bobby Burrell, 30, a tire changer for driver Ricky Rudd, suffered head injuries and was hospitalized after the accident, which happened after Ward Burton and Casey Atwood collided while leaving the pits, diverting Burton's car toward Rudd's being serviced at the time.

Rudd's jack man John Bryan, 31, and tire carrier Kevin Hall, 31, suffered lesser injuries.

Bryan injured his knee and got a concussion in that accident, his second significant injury on pit road.

Fortunately for the sport, NASCAR has only seen one fatality on pit road in the modern era.

In 1990, Mike Rich was killed on pit road when Ricky Rudd's car spun coming into the pits at Atlanta Motor Speedway and hit Bill Elliott's car, which was being serviced by Rich, 32 years old at the time.

Fast approaching the new 2008 season, NASCAR crewmen will abide by yet another new safety rule implemented by NASCAR.

The sanctioning body created the rule to help with the safety of runaway tires on pit road, likely in response to the Harris incident in Dover.

"The tire carriers now have to assist their tire (which is taken off on the right side during a pit stop) back to the wall, instead of allowing the jack man or front changer to roll the tire to the wall," Ford said.

Injury prevention human performance experts at Hendrick Motorsports are faced with injured crewman just like every other team in the sport, but they try to avoid the more frequent injuries through special training plus strength and conditioning.

Together, Andy Papa and Mark Morrison train and perfect iconic crewmen like Ron Malec, longtime confidant of two-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Cook, Jeff Gordon's jack man.

At Hendrick, Morrison said injuries are down 30 percent over last year.

Morrison attributes that to a well executed training program that involves slow, controlled movements, less weight and more repetitions.

Each exercise is specially designed to enhance the performance of each crewman. Everyone performs the band routine to condition shoulders; shoulder injuries, blown rotator cuffs, are the most frequent injuries, Morrison said.

Quick feet drills, ladder drills, dot drills are crucial to the conditioning as well.

"Anything can happen on pit road, quick reaction time, like in any professional sport, is key," Morrison said. "You have to know how to move if the car comes in too hot, too tight to the wall, etc. You'd be crazy not to work quick feet with a pit crew."

And crazy as this seems, 10 year ago, teams didn't have "human performance coaches" or even a single staff member to advise crewman on technique or how to prevent the simplest of injuries.