Fireworks erupt Wednesday night during the Opening Ceremony for the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge presented by Craftsman at Time Warner Cable Arena. (Photo: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Eventually, teams realized that it was easier to teach tech to athletes than train techs to be athletic, and the trend really caught on in the mid-1990s when Jeff Gordon's athletically endowed Rainbow Warriors began showing what a difference a sports background could make. Papathanassiou was the architect of that group.

“I had moved to Charlotte to look for a job (in NASCAR) and asked if I could work out with the pit crew while I was looking,’’ Papathanassiou recalled. “I was told, ‘They don’t practice or work out.’ And I thought, ‘Wow!’ So I suggested, ‘Heck, let me start some practices for you.’ "

Today, Papathanassiou’s program leads the industry.

And one of his earliest crew converts is also one of the most interesting stories on pit road.

Hendrick Motorsports tire carrier, 6-foot-1, 288-pound “Tiny” Mike Houston, who for years worked part time in the race shop during the week, wrestled professionally on Friday and Saturday nights then flew out every Sunday morning to crew a Sprint Cup race.

“Mike Mayhem,” as he was known with the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Association, was so popular up and down the East Coast as “The Minister of Pain” villain that race fans would ask him to sign autographs and pose for photographs just like the NASCAR drivers he pitted for.

He was so successful as a wrestler he received an offer from the WWF (now the WWE) and eventually had to make a decision between car racing and body slamming.

“My body was definitely taking a beating,’’ Houston joked, and so NASCAR won out.

That was a decade ago, and Houston says he has definitely seen the evolution in crew makeup.

“The pit crews are probably 70 or 80 percent former athletes,’’ said Houston, who now carries tires to the No. 88 Chevy driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. “Now what we do is not necessarily athletic in the pure sense because we work with machinery. … You’re not going against another human, you’re going against a machine.

“But what translates is attitude. Those that have played at a college or pro level know how to deal with stress. They are mentally prepared for competition, and that gives them a step up on the average Joe.

“Being a great athlete doesn’t mean you’ll be a great pit-crew man, but the athletic movements are more quick and precise, and it helps.’’

And as the pit-crew responsibilities have gotten more specific, so has the job description for the ideal candidate.

Tire changers, for example, need to be quick and have a long arm reach with physical builds similar to baseball shortstops or college wrestlers. The jack man is like a linebacker. He needs be strong — the jack he’s wielding weighs 35 pounds — but he also needs to be agile and quick to get around the car.

Mike Casto, the 6-foot-3, 212-pound jack man for Tony Stewart's No. 14 Office Depot-Mobil1 Chevy, played wide receiver at Glenville State College (W. Va.) under former Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez and is the ultimate — albeit rare — hybrid on pit road.

He has a degree in engineering that he uses during the week to prepare the Stewart-Haas Racing cars, then turns to his athletic side on weekends, working over the wall.

“I’m on the edge with both sides,’’ Casto said with a laugh. “The engineers look at me differently because of the sports side and then the athletes look at me differently because of the engineering side.”

Casto has spent the past 10 years in the sport and says the pit crews are at the top of their game athletically but acknowledges it takes a combination of skill and brawn.

“I’ve seen some of the greatest athletes in the world come in and try, but lack the coordination,’’ Casto said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. pits at Dover International Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“In football, you try to dominate the person you’re lined up against,’’ said Aaron Walker, a former University of Florida star, who spent five seasons in the NFL and now fuels Mark Martin’s No. 5 Chevy. “In racing, you’re more in control, you have to try not to be overly aggressive, and it’s a big transition. The more in sync you are, the faster you are.

“It’s more about being mentally prepared to do it right every time because everyone is depending on you. People don’t realize how mentally tough it is to do the job at a high level every time. You have to evolve your programs and develop new conditioning programs to keep your athletes at peak level. Every team is going that way. They have to keep up.’’

To that point, Hendricks Motorports recently constructed a state-of-art outdoors facility — complete with a track — in its complex. Most of the top teams, such as Stewart-Haas Racing and Earnhardt Ganassi, provide their pit crews with nutritionists, specialized position coaches and maintain a weekly training regimen including everything from yoga and weightlifting to aqua-aerobics and wind sprints.

“You know, you used to have guys that worked hard as mechanics and fabricators all week and being on a pit crew over the wall was kind of a reward for a hard week’s work,’’ Papathanassiou said. “There’s nothing wrong with that idea, but when you have people out of place for the specialized task you need at the racetrack, you’re hurting your effort.

“Why work hard all week and give it up on a pit stop?’