There\u2019s really no other way to describe Ben Braden<\/a> today than as a motorsports mass monster. At 6\u20197\u2033, 330 pounds, he obviously stands out while navigating pit lane on the IndyCar circuit, looking better suited for protecting quarterbacks instead of being a technique-driven specialist fueling Marcus Armstrong\u2019s No. 66 Honda.<\/p>\n And technically, you\u2019d be correct. Before his current role as a member of Meyer Shank Racing,<\/a> Braden was a University of Michigan offensive lineman,<\/a> who dreamed of hearing his name called on NFL draft, but instead signed as an undrafted free agent, spending six years in the league before a severe spinal injury forced him into early retirement.<\/p>\n He\u2019s since made a successful switch to racing, enjoying his first season as the team\u2019s fueler. He still gets to put on a helmet several Sundays a year. Now it\u2019s an entirely new role, but with the same sports mindset. \u201cIt\u2019s so nice,\u201d the gas-toting giant says of his new role. \u201cThere\u2019s still a competitive edge to all this. The intensity, attention to detail, and focus are all very similar to football, which made the transition easier.\u201d<\/p>\n Braden\u2019s path to IndyCar is one of those stories where the weight room accidentally became his career-changing boardroom. His first break came while he was training in Indianapolis during his playing days, he would often run into race team owner Ed Carpenter, who was training at the same gym. When his football career ended, Braden reached out to one of racing\u2019s icons, who then gave him his first break in 2023.<\/p>\n He says his only experience was working on cars since high school. The sport was, and still is, relatively new to him, but he\u2019s getting the feel for fuel, and it\u2019s not too far off from football. \u201cI had no idea at first,\u201d he says. \u201cOnce they kind of started explaining to me how it works, technique-wise, it all started clicking. It was stuff I remembered from football.\u201d<\/p>\n Now responsible for fueling during pit stops, Braden\u2019s noticing even more nuanced similarities between being a lineman in football and creating a successful pit stop.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that really translated from the NFL to this was people don\u2019t realize fueling is a lot of footwork,<\/a>\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of the same footwork. The fundamentals and mechanics transfer over, so it was really nice to do something that was different than what I had done, but at the same time felt really natural.\u201d<\/p>\n His back is no longer a concern, which helps his performance in the pits, which means Braden can worry a little less about long-term effects from this football-related damage. And while the risk of severe injury is lower, racing still remains a high-risk sport. Anything can happen at any moment. One rookie mistake came while working on the car in shorts; a quick leg burn ended that habit, but he\u2019s still reminded of the hazards by the occasional bout of bloodshed from carbon-fiber splinters.<\/p>\n \u201cCarbon fiber is extremely sharp, and they\u2019re 10 times worse than wooden splinters,\u201d he says. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to come out. They break really easy, and you\u2019re sitting there for a week while your body works it out.\u201d<\/p>\n While Braden\u2019s massive size once allowed him to blend in alongside his band of behemoths on the Wolverines\u2019 offensive line, navigating pit road in Meyer Shank orange and black makes it nearly impossible for him not to draw stares. It also doesn\u2019t help that he bears a slight resemblance to 2018 World\u2019s Strongest Man winner Hafthor Julius Bjornsson.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been calling me \u2018Thor\u2019 since the NFL,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cI definitely get that a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n He also gets peppered with the usual big-man questions. In addition to \u201cHow tall are you?\u201d he\u2019s often asked, \u201cWhat do you bench?\u201d<\/p>\n Braden\u2019s numbers are a lot lower these days. Being tasked with carrying a 90-pound fuel rig and fueling the No. 66 Honda is a much different responsibility than repelling pass rushers from college and NFL backfields.<\/p>\n Back when he was preparing for his shot at the NFL, though, the big man was putting up top numbers. At the 2017 NFL Combine, the second-team All\u2013Big Ten offensive guard knocked out 25 reps on the bench press while also running a 5.04 in the 40-yard dash at a listed weight of 329 pounds. (For reference, although he recorded one fewer rep, his 40 time was slightly faster than current Buffalo Bills perennial Pro Bowl offensive lineman Dion Dawkins.)<\/p>\n Unfortunately, while NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the names of future stars in the first round of the 2017 draft\u2014including Myles Garrett, Christian McCaffrey, and Patrick Mahomes\u2014Braden\u2019s phone remained silent. Following a disappointing draft, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the New York Jets, where he spent two seasons primarily on the practice squad. In 2020 he signed with the Green Bay Packers, playing in nine games in 2021, mostly on special teams. The next year he signed with the Denver Broncos, but an injury forced the team to cut him prior to the season opener.=<\/p>\n The injury\u2014a shattered vertebra\u2014was severe enough that it reduced Braden to nothing but short walks over a four-month period. With a wife and two kids, along with the threat of paralysis a real possibility if he continued playing, the decision to walk away\u2014while he could still walk\u2014became much easier.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t ever want to admit that you\u2019re not invincible,\u201d he says. \u201cBut at the same time, I didn\u2019t want to be paralyzed at 29. Freak things can happen to anybody. I have two kids and a wife. I knew I had a long life ahead of me. Nobody plays football for their entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n Once he made the decision to leave football, getting back into a routine was difficult without the day-to-day training discipline the sport had always provided. \u201cThe first three or four months was really tough,\u201d he admits. \u201cEveryone will tell you, when you leave the NFL, it\u2019s definitely different.\u201d<\/p>\n The abrupt exit pushed Braden to make a fast decision about his future. \u201cMy wife was kind of like, you need to figure something out.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s when reached out to Ed Carpenter.<\/a> who gave an opportunity to work in the garage and on pit lane.<\/p>\n \u201cPit crew was one of the first things they had me work on,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI was fueling and just changing tires so they could see what I could do and what I was comfortable with. That obviously went really well.\u201d<\/p>\n For three years at ECR, he had a mixed role, from changing tires to carrying the nearly 100-pound fuel tank, even doing some light mechanic work in the garage. Braden was learning that being on the pit crew was about much more than just lifting tires and tanks\u2014it required a high level of athleticism.<\/p>\n Leagues like NASCAR were already ahead in recruiting former Division I athletes to work full-time as pit-crew members, with more than 90 percent of its pit crews comprised of ex\u2013college athletes. IndyCar is starting to catch up, thanks in part to Carpenter and Meyer Shank co-owner Michael Shank, who in 2025 called for teams to start reling less on<\/a> mechanics doing double duty and to begin flying in pit-crew specialists for races.<\/p>\n Getting a car in and out of the pit in roughly eight seconds requires consistent timing, footwork, and execution. These were skills and techniques Braden had already honed at both Michigan and in the NFL. He\u2019s a prime example of IndyCar\u2019s shift toward former athletes playing key roles. While his play count is much lower than in football, each pit stop carries the importance of a fourth-and-goal. There\u2019s no margin for error.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tolerances for getting the probe into the car is extremely tight,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more touch and feel and timing versus raw strength.\u201d<\/p>\n He enjoyed his time with ECR and was grateful for the opportunity he was given. But when Meyer Shank reached out with a more expansive role\u2014including the full-time fueler spot\u2014it was an offer he couldn\u2019t refuse. \u201cI made the move to Meyer Shank in October,\u201d he says, \u201cand it\u2019s been great to really be able to focus more on the fueling aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n In his first year as anchor of the No. 66 pit crew, Braden is easing into giving his new \u201cquarterback\u201d\u20145\u201910\u201d, 142-pound Marcus Armstrong<\/a>\u2014the best shot at victory each weekend. With the next race scheduled for May 9 on the Indianapolis Road Course, getting Armstrong back on track as quickly and efficiently as possible is the objective, especially with the Indianapolis 500 looming<\/a>. Although racing and football are on different ends of the sports spectrum, Braden sees clear similarities between a top driver and an elite quarterback.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing an elite athlete, you have to be very competitive and driven,\u201d he says. \u201cMarcus and I are still getting to know each other. After our first race together, we talked afterward and it was nice to kind of get an idea of what you do and don\u2019t like. Will it bother you if I do this or that? Just starting that line of communication was very important as an athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n Helping him with his switch to racing has been another football staple: film study. It\u2019s been an off-track training element he\u2019s leaned on since high school. His work in the film room was elevated to a new level during his time at Michigan under then-coach Jim Harbaugh. \u201cYou were running 65 or 70 plays, and every little detail gets just absolutely torn apart,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n Earning second-team all-conference honors, the extra effort paid off. In racing, he\u2019s doing it all over again. \u201cWe actually have a camera that records our pit stop,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s very similar to watching practice. You can get different angles. You can watch your feet and your hands and the timing.\u201d<\/p>\n After film, he goes back to footwork. Just like anticipating an oncoming pass rush, every pit stop is meticulously broken down step by step to shave valuable time off Armstrong\u2019s visit. \u201cDuring practice, I\u2019ll be trying to find where I want to position my feet, where\u2019s my starting point, and then from there, do I need to adjust if there\u2019s a car behind us,\u201d he says. \u201cJust like football, my inside foot is the starting point. I want to make sure that before I plug in, my feet are where they should be, and then I\u2019ll scoot toward the wall so that there\u2019s clearance for the car to come in.\u201d<\/p>\n With his lower back now fully healed, Braden says he can handle his new role at Meyer Shank at 100 percent full effort. But, at age 32, Braden\u2019s learned to train smart, eliminating high-risk moves that may trigger a relapse. \u201cI don\u2019t back squat anymore a whole lot anymore because of the injuries from playing football,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean Braden skips leg day. As a fueler, core and lower-body work remain the key elements to executing a successful pit stop each timer Armstrong pulls in.<\/p>\n While he adds leg presses and hack squats as alternatives, lunges have become the training staple that best simulates his work in the pits:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll always do forward and lateral lunges,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of what I\u2019m doing is transitioning and twisting my lower body and being able to push off. I have to be able to hold that weight and be able to move my legs while holding it.\u201d<\/p>\n He still hits the bench\u2014albeit a bit lighter now, again thanks to football wear and tear\u2014as part of his Monday upper-body routine, which also includes delts and shoulders. \u201cI\u2019ll either do incline, decline or flat bench,\u201d he says of his chest work. \u201cAnd I always try and do some upper-body stretching and some sort of shoulder work.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019ll cap off his training day with \u00a0capped with a 20-minute, low-intensity treadmill walk. The rest of the week includes a back day, a cardio-focused day, additional shoulder work, and his final workout dedicated solely to arms. \u201cFriday\u2019s a fun day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n With his size and his history of opening holes for running backs with his massive power and precision technique, adding his football skills to the racetrack has been eye-opening opportunity the fueler known as \u201cThor\u201d isn\u2019t taking for granted, While it still takes pro-athlete-level strength to perform his role, Braden, IndyCar has finally beginning to master the fine details of his craft. with his football-driven intangibles, h\u2019s even added bit of savviness in helping push the No. 66 out of the pits\u2014and hopefully into the winner\u2019s circle.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people think the harder you can throw the hose into the car, the better\u2014that\u2019s actually not the case,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s really more of feel and finesse. The old saying that \u2018slow is smooth, smooth is fast\u2019 is very true. You want to be as slow and smooth as you can. because it\u2019s kind of weird, but it feels like the hose will just find its way in there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nAbrupbly Walking Away from Football\u2014But On Ben Braden\u2019s Own Terms<\/h3>\n
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<\/div>Changing Careers Began by Changing Tires<\/h3>\n
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<\/div>He Stopped Pass Rushers, Now Ben Braden Rushes His Driver Out of the Pits<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Ben Braden Remains a Lot of Power with a Bit of Finesse<\/strong><\/h3>\n