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Georgia Tech OL who left early for NASCAR crew career says he's leaving racing

Eason Fromayan was a vital part of Georgia Tech’s offensive line in 2016. (Getty)
Eason Fromayan was a vital part of Georgia Tech’s offensive line in 2016. (Getty)

Former Georgia Tech offensive lineman Eason Fromayan’s foray into the NASCAR world was short-lived.

Fromayan skipped the 2017 season — set to be his senior year — at Georgia Tech to embark on a career as a pit crew member in NASCAR. But with NASCAR cutting the sizes of teams in 2018, Fromayan has abandoned the dream of being a pit crew member in the Cup Series.

“It was certainly interesting,” Fromayan told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’ll never have any regrets for trying. I’ll never have to wonder what could have been. I still love racing. It’s something I’ve always been passionate about. It’s just maybe not the right time or the right position to be in at the moment.”

He told the paper he didn’t want to be in a position where he was looking for a career change in a few years, so he went ahead and did it now after spending 2017 working smaller races. He started a job as a corporate recruiter this fall.

Fromayan had become a key piece at offensive tackle for Georgia Tech in 2016. But he left the team after the TaxSlayer Bowl to try his hand as a NASCAR pit crew member after graduating in December of that year.

But NASCAR jobs are getting more and more scarce. Just days after the conclusion of the 2017 season, the sanctioning body announced that pit crews will have one fewer member next season and teams will be forced to have a traveling “roster” of a dozen road crew members for each car.

Those reductions mean fewer people will be traveling with the series on a weekly basis. And fewer jobs overall.

Fromayan’s departure for NASCAR has been part of a trend in the sport, which has actively recruited former collegiate athletes for their pit crews. While you can argue that a pit crew member is not an athlete, it does take athletic skill to work a jack or carry or change tires as quickly and efficiently as possible for a team to complete a pit stop in a dozen seconds.

That trend will still continue, just on a smaller scale. As the attention paid to NASCAR continues to wane, the industry isn’t as lucrative as it used to be. Fromayan clearly recognizes this, and wanted to make the career change on his own terms.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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