ELON, N.C. – Donovan Williams has traded in his pads and cleats for a fire suit and car jack.
A former tight end for the Elon University football team, Williams has made the transition from playing at Rhodes Stadium to pitting cars on NASCAR pit roads. A jackman for Hendrick Motorsports, Williams relishes having a career in professional sports, even if he's servicing cars on race days and not catching touchdown passes on game days.
"I was still craving that competition and that athletic side, that passion and that drive and being able to wake up and have a tangible goal you can chase," Williams said. "Just being able to wake up every day and do what you're used to doing – going out and competing – is huge."
Williams began his college football career as a quarterback at the University of Connecticut. After a new coaching staff took over the program early in his time there, Williams switched to receiver and eventually tight end prior to his junior year to see the field more, which he saw as a "blessing in disguise."
"It catered to my skill set more as an athlete," Williams said.
Early in his senior year with the Huskies, Williams suffered an injury that kept him out most of the season. He returned for the team's final two games but was ready for a change of scenery to close out his college career.
Williams entered the transfer portal after the 2019 season. Elon was the first school to offer Williams a spot, and after taking a visit to the campus, he committed to the Phoenix.
"I knew I needed to go somewhere where I was highly desired and wanted and had the opportunity to have the best career moving forward in football, as well as academically," Williams said.
As a graduate student at Elon, Williams earned a master's degree in business administration while serving as regular at tight end in his two seasons with the maroon and gold. In his debut with the Phoenix during the team's spring 2021 season, Williams hauled in the game-winning touchdown against Davidson.
Off to a strong start at his new home, Williams suffered a Lisfranc injury early that season that cut his spring 2021 campaign short. With just four months to recover before the team's fall season began, he returned to preseason camp feeling about 65% or 70% of his best.
"I had my days where I just wanted to shut down," Williams said. "It's an internal battle because I came here and felt like I was thriving in all aspects, especially on the field, and to kind of be set back that much and to still feel like you were in the process of proving yourself was very tough."
Williams fought through the pain to see the field in his final season of eligibility. Although he didn't have the same explosiveness he had prior to the injury due to the pain, he was active for all 11 games, tallying 12 catches, 95 yards and a touchdown.
After the end of the season, Williams moved back home to Virginia to fully recover from his injury and begin preparing for the 2022 NFL Draft. Williams said he performed well at his Pro Day, but didn't run like he wanted to, which he believes hurt his chances of being drafted.
"In the back of my mind, I knew I gave football everything I had," Williams said.
As he began to realize professional football wasn't going to work out as a career, Williams began to consider alternatives. One potential option stood out to Williams.
During the summer of 2021, head coach
Tony Trisciani invited Chris Rice, the president of NASCAR's Kaulig Racing, to speak with the team about careers in the sport. While Williams was not very familiar with NASCAR at the time, he was intrigued by the opportunity.
"I was never a huge [NASCAR] fan. I had the video games growing up with Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson and Tony Stewart on the front," Williams said. "I kind of had that in the back of my mind, like, OK, maybe, maybe that could be something to do down the line. But I was so geared on playing [football] at the next level that I didn't give too much thought to it."
While training for his Pro Day, Williams received a call from a NASCAR team and invited him to visit in May when he would be back in North Carolina to partake in graduation. As he was driving to Elon, the engine in his car expired 15 minutes from campus. With his visit scheduled for the next morning, Williams had teammates pick him up from the highway.
"We're laughing and I'm like, man, maybe the NASCAR thing wasn't in my cards," Williams said.
Later on that summer, Williams received a phone call from Hendrick Motorsports, one of the most successful teams in NASCAR history, who wanted him to participate in their combine for pit crew prospects. Not knowing what he wanted to do in his life after football, he accepted the invite.
When Williams and his dad visited Hendrick's facility, he instantly fell in love. He felt right at home doing Hendrick's combine for pit crew prospects, which included bench press reps, a vertical jump and agility tests.
"Then, they took us back to train on the car and see what we can do. They don't expect you to be good by any means. They expect you to suck," Williams laughed. "The quicker you can accept that and embrace it, the better off you are."
Williams had a strong performance at the combine and was invited back a couple weeks later to Hendrick's mini-camp. That summer, Williams worked at his local Boys and Girls Club and also accepted a sales job with a cybersecurity company to secure a full-time position.
At the mini-camp, Williams was one of 10 athletes vying for two open jackman spots. On the camp's final day, everyone participated in live pit stops. Williams was part of the crew that had the fastest stop at 14 seconds.
A few weeks later, Williams got a call from Hendrick offering him a spot. He stepped away from his cybersecurity job and quickly prepared for a move to Charlotte.
Being a NASCAR pit crew member has been a learning experience for Williams. Luckily for him, Hendrick's veteran pit crew athletes have helped him learn the position.
"They have a great culture where you can learn from the older guys. As you come in as a young guy, the older guys are there and they're willing to help you, they're encouraging you to watch them and they're encouraging you to put in extra work and so are the coaches," Williams said. "Once you figure that out, I think success is inevitable."
Williams was one of three new pit crew members hired by Hendrick in the summer of 2022. After completing his first season, he began to hear talks about staffing for NASCAR's Garage 56 program, in which NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports were set to field a car in the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans in France.
As a new member to Hendrick, Williams did not expect to get selected to the entry's pit crew and had mixed emotions when he learned he would be making the trip.
"I was very nervous because in my mind, I'm like, 'Man, I still suck at this, how am I going to go over there and not mess up in front of Chad Knaus and Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick,'" Williams said.
Williams worked through his nerves and helped Garage 56 to a successful Le Mans debut. The team's pit crew was flawless throughout the trip and even won the pit crew competition for the GTE car class, ranking fifth out of the race's 60 total entries.
The impressive stint in France helped Williams build his confidence as a new member to the sport.
"That opened a lot of eyes within the company and gave some of the higher-ups a little more trust in us," Williams said. "Taking that momentum going into my second year is huge."
Back on the NASCAR circuit, Williams got a taste of NASCAR Cup Series action by helping pit Corey LaJoie's car as a tire carrier last season alongside fellow Elon alum Eric Ludwig. Williams hopes to find a home as a regular on one of Hendrick's Cup Series pit crews in the near future.
Williams believes NASCAR is a great spot for athletes that want to stay in a competitive environment even after their time in their first sport ends.
"These guys are legit athletes. Some of them have played professional ball and their careers got cut short, or some of them were at the highest level of college football and basketball and wrestling and wherever else, and some of them came straight from high school," Williams said. "Kudos to those guys because they jump into a sport that's not very forgiving and are competing at the highest level."
Not only does Williams believe NASCAR is a great fit for athletes looking for a new experience in professional sports, he also believes high-level sports prepare pit crew members to be successful in the high-stakes pressure cooker that is NASCAR.
"That's what we're bred for," Williams. "That's what they bring you in for because you're used to competing in front of large crowds or high-level situations, game on the line, ball in your hand."
Williams' career path is not the only recent significant change in his life. Earlier this year, Donovan and his wife Kayla welcomed their first child, Lyla. With the extensive travel required to work in NASCAR, Williams said he is thankful for the support from his family, who have encouraged him to chase his dream.
"It's a level of love that's just different. Being able to come home and see the two of them, you at peace, I take a huge sense of pride in that," Williams said. "I gained a huge sense of clarity in the last year of what's really important to me. Being able to go out and put my best foot forward in everything I do and every aspect of life, especially my career, and then being able to come home and try to be the best dad and husband I can be is huge."
Williams always wanted to be a professional athlete. Even though his career in sports is different than what he'd imagined, he has found a new home in NASCAR where he can build a life.
"[NASCAR] is like a hidden gem," Williams said. "Not a lot of athletes know about it. I didn't know about it. The sport is going to grow as the years go on and I'm just excited to see where it goes. I'm excited for my path in the sport and welcoming other young athletes and other like-minded individuals into the space."
'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.
--ELON–
