CONCORD, N.C. -- Hendrick Motorsports' director of human performance Andy Papathanassiou revolutionized the way NASCAR pit crews operated, bringing athleticism and a team mindset to what was previously more of an individualized process.
"The Bergen Record," Papathanassiou's hometown newspaper, has included him in a bracket challenge of "North Jersey's Greatest Male Athlete." The news outlet came up with the top 64 male and top 64 female athletes in North Jersey history. A native of Emerson, New Jersey, Papathanassiou is seeded fifth in the Icons Region first round. He said he didn't even know that he had been included in the challenge until he was tagged on Twitter.
"I saw this and I thought, 'Well that’s cool.' Then I got nervous and I’m like, 'I’m fifth in my bracket! I can’t finish worse than fifth!'" he said.
Joining the organization just before Jeff Gordon’s rookie season in 1993, Papathanassiou was brought in as a pit crew coach as the No. 24 team was being assembled.
A former track star in high school and college football player at Stanford, Papathanassiou began to reevaluate the best way to get the job done on pit road.
He said working with with former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Ray Evernham at the beginning of his career, plus supporting Gordon when he first started racing, gave Papathanassiou the platform he needed to change how pit crews were operated.
"I came in with my previous athletic experience – football, track and field, wrestling – and I saw a pit crew as a different thing," he said. "I saw a pit stop more as an athletic event than a mechanical event. So my way of putting that together was to find people that had athletic experience, that athletic mindset. Primarily practice and repetition, the ability to accept coaching, working in pressure situations in front of big crowds, and then teach them what they needed to know about the specifics of a pit crew."
Papathanassiou said the mechanics of operating as an athletic team, Hendrick Motorsports' success as an organization and Gordon's talent on the track is what paved the way for how pit crews work today.
After Gordon won his first championship in 1995, the majority of pit crews were using the same techniques Papathanassiou implemented a couple of years earlier, which made him a big name on the NASCAR circuit and a hometown hero in New Jersey.
Papathanassiou said if he were to compete against one specific person in his bracket, it would be an honor to go against one of the top running backs of the 1980s and '90s.
"Craig Heyward was just a great player and I got a chance to meet him, personally," he said. "He's in the bottom half of the bracket and I'm in the top half of the bracket, so it would be great to face off in the finals against Craig Heyward."
To vote for Papathanassiou in the "North Jersey's Greatest Male Athlete" challenge and see the field of competitors, click here. In order to vote, fans must sign up for a free account. Voting in the first round starts April 9 and goes through April 10.