Hollifield adds to Virginia Tech legacy of working in NASCAR

They wanted to see how the Hokies were doing on the gridiron. It didn’t end well as they watched Tech surrender two touchdowns in the final 2 1/2 minutes and lose by five to Syracuse inside Lane Stadium.

“We’re both watching the game and talking about the football team and the struggles we’re going through right now with that,” Branzelle recently recalled in a phone interview. “That’s kind of where the conversations go to a lot.”

Branzelle and Grubb noticed middle linebacker Dax Hollifield all over the field that day. Hollifield recorded nine tackles and a half sack in the setback.

Neither realized at the time that two years later Hollifield was joining them in NASCAR.

It wasn’t Hollifield’s first career choice by any means. Heck, the Shelby, North Carolina, native never watched the sport growing up and attended only one race prior to graduating from college. He was focused on getting to the NFL and living out a childhood dream.

“I always wanted to be a professional athlete growing up,” Hollifield said in a phone interview. “First it was basketball, my first love. Then obviously I wanted to be a professional football player. Neither of those worked out. But now I’m a professional pit crew athlete. Things work themselves out. I’m very happy to be here.”

Hollifield was hired by Hendrick Motorsports on July 31 and is part of the organization’s developmental pit crew. He spends the week practicing pit stops as the jackman and is among the many who are leased out to Truck Series, Xfinity Series and Cup Series teams that do not have full-time pit crew members.

Hollifield follows in a long line of Hokies in NASCAR. Most of them, like Branzelle and Grubb, have thrived as crew chiefs, car chiefs and engineers with some of the most-respected organizations in the sport.

Hollifield is the second Tech football player to make it into the sport, joining Caleb Hurb who played at Tech from 1996-99 and spent nearly 23 years in NASCAR as a fueler, engineer, administrator and video coordinator.

“I feel like Virginia Tech has a sense of community that most schools don’t have.” Branzelle said. “So anytime you hear, oh, this guy went to Virginia Tech and he wants to get into the sport, I’m probably going to be more prone to help that guy just because I feel like we’re part of the same background and same community. Anything you can do to help out a fellow Hokie is always going to be what you can do.”

Tech grads like Branzelle, Grubb, Daniel Knost, Kevin Kidd, Ben Beshore and others grew up wanting to be a part of NASCAR in one way or another. Most of them gained experience working at the grassroots level and helping with local Late Model teams so they were ready to join the sport once they graduated from Tech.

Branzelle, who is currently an engineer for Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford in the Cup Series, got his first job in the sport before he graduated in 2013.

He grew up working on Late Model cars for Brandon Butler, Stephen Berry and Jeff Oakley at tracks like Southside, South Boston, Langley and Martinsville. That opened the door for him to be contacted during his senior year spring break by Red Horse Racing, and he was eventually hired by the Truck Series team to work with the No. 77 Toyota driven by Germán Quiroga.

It allowed Branzelle to follow a childhood dream that became a reality in the early 1990s. Tech graduate Brian Whitesell, who previously handled various jobs helping with Alan Kulwicki’s race team before joining Hendrick Motorsports, became the engineer for Jeff Gordon’s team.

Whitesell has remained with Hendrick, been a part of eight championship teams and currently serves as the team manager for Chase Elliott and William Byron.

“When I was a kid, I knew I wanted to go to Virginia Tech. I knew I loved racing,” Branzelle said. “Then I heard about Brian Whitesell being an engineer at Hendrick Motorsports. I was like, I can go to the place I want to go to and do what I want to do and do what he did.”

Branzelle, Kidd and Michael Tam all have worked for RFK Racing. Knost, a 2008 Tech graduate, is best known for being a crew chief with Stewart-Haas Racing. J. David Wilson is group vice president and president of Toyota Racing Development, and Marvin Aylor Jr. works in marketing with NASCAR.

Beshore is the crew chief for John Hunter Nemecheck in the Xfinity Series, and that team can lock up a berth in the Championship 4 on points thanks to the team’s consistency throughout the season.

“The engineering program at Tech is, in my opinion, one of the best in the country,” Branzelle said, “and I’m sure a lot of other people will say the same thing.”

Richmond Raceway president Lori Collier Waran isn’t a Tech grad, but cheers for the Hokies with her oldest child currently enrolled at Tech.

She got to meet Hollifield the day before he was hired at HMS during Richmond’s race weekend.

“We chatted a little bit and she’s pumped and I’m pumped, too,” Hollifield said of his interaction with Waran.

Grubb also will be at Martinsville this weekend. He helps with the Trackhouse Racing teams of Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez when the Project91 team isn’t racing.

“I am still traveling with the race team pretty much every week,” Grubb said in a July interview. “I’ve only had a few weekends off this year, so I’m either on the 1 [Chastain] box or the 99 [Suarez] box during the races. I’m still on the radio with those guys, helping to push all the engineering support and all the race engineers and things we have, make sure all the tools we have are working and use our support from Chevrolet to the best we can.”

Hollifield majored in nutrition while at Tech. But his athleticism on the football field is what caught the eye of Hendrick developmental pit crew coach Keith Flynn.

One of Flynn’s scouts reached out to Tech director of football strength and conditioning Dwight Galt IV to get background on Hollifield, and Flynn reached out with an offer: If the NFL didn’t work out, Hollifield was welcomed to try out for a spot with Hendrick.

“I think Dax is a unique guy with a tremendous, well-rounded skillset,” Hokies coach Brent Pry said. “He’s smart, he’s a hard worker, he’s tough.”

Hollifield was invited to rookie minicamp with the Jaguars. He was there for a couple of days and even had an interception. But he didn’t make the cut and was soon contemplating Flynn’s offer.

“I was desperate to have my cup of coffee in the NFL,” Hollifield said. “… I gave myself the whole summer to figure out what I was going to do. I was still wanting to play football. I knew if I hadn’t gotten signed or picked up anywhere by minicamp or training camp, I probably needed to go look into this. So that happened and I’m here now.”

Hollifield played at Tech for five seasons and became the undisputed leader on defense. His position at linebacker, which serves as the quarterback of the unit, forced him to process how plays were developing at the snap of the ball.

The ability to process information quickly and slow things down is what has allowed Hollifield to pick up being a jackman quickly.

“You have to process information in like hundredths of a second. I’m used to doing that on an everyday basis with football,” he said. “Not many people can say that’s been their role before. I feel like that’s why we transition so well to this sport. You have to look back, you have to know what you’re looking for and you have to know if it’s right or not. It’s bad if you drop the car and there’s a wheel loose. If you have four hands in the hub, you can’t drop it. You’re wanting to have the fastest stop that you can, so it’s very impulse driven but you can’t let it happen. I think pressure situations, we’re built for that coming from college. It definitely transitions very easy for us.”

Hollifield will be at Martinsville Speedway this weekend. He’ll serve as the jackman for Emerling Gase Motorsports in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. On Sunday, he’ll work behind the wall by throwing the rear tire hose and catching the second can of gas with Ty Dillon’s No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in the Cup Series race.

He said he’s “learned a ton over the past two months just being around these guys.” He practices pitting, works out and watches film on a daily basis. Then he travels on the weekend to work at the track.

It’s similar to a college football schedule and one Hollifield is hoping will open doors for fellow Tech football players.

“I want there to be more. I really do,” he said. “Hopefully I’ve opened up a door for guys like me. Hopefully I’ve opened up a door to allow Tech grads to come and do this. That’d be awesome.”