CONCORD, N.C. -- Friday night, the Philadelphia 76ers take on the Charlotte Hornets.
But after practicing in Charlotte on Thursday, they added some NASCAR to their road trip.
Guard TJ McConnell along with Jesse Wright, the 76ers' head of performance science/strength and conditioning coach, and Michael Preston, the 76ers' director of public relations, visited the Hendrick Motorsports campus Thursday afternoon.
There they were greeted by Hendrick Motorsports Director of Human Performance Andy Papathanassiou, who toured them around the facilities.
“Incredibly impressive," Wright said. "I love the attention to detail, walking through the buildings, the level of professionalism right down to the cleanliness of the floor. It just screams of high-level performance. You can’t not notice it. That’s probably the biggest thing that jumps out.”
The group took in the sights of campus from the race shops to the chassis and body shops to the gym and pit crew practice pad.
Wright was also struck by the similarities between what is asked of pit crew athletes versus what is expected of NBA athletes.
“You think about the demands of the various positions of a pit crew and everything, they’re obviously incredible athletes," he said. "The demands are incredible to perform at such a high level and it just crosses right over and parallels with most other sports' athletes, specifically basketball."
McConnell said it was his first glimpse at what it takes to run a successful NASCAR team.
“I haven’t really followed NASCAR that much but it kind of opened my eyes to see how much goes into it and how many people are on a team and just the coolness of all the championships and the cars," the guard said.
"It was just an honor to be here.”