{"id":249825,"date":"2025-10-30T09:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T09:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/249825\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T09:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T09:55:11","slug":"phoenix-holds-special-memories-for-nascar-pit-crew-member-who-won-college-football-title-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/249825\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix holds special memories for NASCAR pit crew member who won college football title there"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blaine Anderson often keeps the window shade shut when he flies to tracks on NASCAR weekends, but when he goes to Phoenix, he raises the window shade so he can look around.<\/p>\n

As he views the mountain scenery overlooking the fifth-most populous city in the country, nostalgia returns.<\/p>\n

While NASCAR competitors have viewed Phoenix as the home to the championship race since 2020, Anderson \u2014 a Hendrick Motorsports tire changer who pits Justin Haley\u2019s Spire Motorsports car \u2014 views the city as where he won a college football national championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always look forward to going back to Phoenix every single time,\u201d Anderson told NBC Sports.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"AUTO:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Kyle Larson and William Byron will race for title for Hendrick Motorsports Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

Anderson was on the Alabama football team that defeated Clemson 45-40 for the championship in January 2016 in the home of the NFL\u2019s Arizona Cardinals. That stadium is located less than 10 miles from Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

Anderson was on the scout team and didn\u2019t play but that didn\u2019t diminish what it mean to win a national title and have a championship ring (along with two Southeastern Conference championship rings).<\/p>\n

It was a celebration that nearly didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Blaine<\/p>\n

Blaine Anderson (41) taking part in drills under the watchful eye of then-Alabama coach Nick Saban.<\/p>\n

Blaine Anderson (41) taking part in drills under the watchful eye of then-Alabama coach Nick Saban. (Photo Courtesy Blaine Anderson)<\/p>\n

Anderson played high school football in Charlotte, North Carolina, and told friends that he would walk-on to the Alabama football team even though he admitted that he \u201chad no direction on how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t try out his freshman year but stayed in shape. Anderson tried out his sophomore year in 2014 and worked with the team in the spring and summer before he was cut.<\/p>\n

Anderson again tried out the next year and made the team for the 2015 season as a safety for head coach Nick Saban\u2019s team. The defensive coordinator that year was Kirby Smart, who went on to become the head coach at Georgia, leading that team to the national championship in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Chase Briscoe will make his first appearance in the Cup Championship 4 on Sunday at Phoenix.<\/p>\n

The 2015 Alabama team won the SEC championship and then claimed the national title to cap a 14-1 season.<\/p>\n

The memories of the championship celebration remain fresh for Anderson.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see a pile of confetti (on the field) and everyone\u2019s doing snow angles and you\u2019re like, \u2018Well, I want to do that, too,\u2019\u201d Anderson. \u201cGrabbing the (Alabama) flag (and waving it), I honestly don\u2019t remember who handed me the flag, but we basically passed it around like it was a torch. I\u2019ll never forget that I handed it to Derrick Henry. That was a special moment to give it to our captain, our leading rusher, our Heisman Trophy winning guy. That was super special.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A winless streak last season led to offseason moves that have pushed Joe Gibbs\u2019 organization forward.<\/p>\n

The day before the Talladega playoff race, members of that football team had their 10-year reunion at Alabama\u2019s home game against Tennessee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so fun to see those guys,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cHaving everyone together during our pre-game ceremony, it\u2019s wild how like being around everyone it doesn\u2019t feel like 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

After football, he took part in Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 rookie mini camp. He advanced to the next tryout and made the cut in September 2018, serving as a tire changer for Hendrick cars or teams that use Hendrick\u2019s pit crews since.<\/p>\n

Whenever any of the Hendrick cars wins a championship, all the company employees are rewarded. Anderson has company rings when Chase Elliott won the 2020 Cup title and Kyle Larson won the 2021 crown. Larson and William Byron will race for a Cup title Sunday at Phoenix (3 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock).<\/p>\n

To go from Alabama football to Hendrick Motorsports makes for quite a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could look at it either two ways,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cLike Alabama is the Hendrick of college football, or Hendrick is the Alabama of NASCAR. I\u2019m very fortunate. I\u2019m very, very lucky to be a part of both great organizations. I wouldn\u2019t trade it for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blaine Anderson often keeps the window shade shut when he flies to tracks on NASCAR weekends, but when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-249825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}