NASCAR’s diversity program is working and Ricky Rozier, a former fullback for Winston-Salem State, is a good example.

Rozier, who played on the 2012 WSSU football team that made it to the Division II national championship game, had a dream of playing pro football, but it never worked out. Instead, he showed up three years ago on campus for something called a pit-crew combine.

It’s structured like an NFL combine where athletes go through various drills to test their stamina and agility.

“To be honest, I didn’t know what the heck I was doing, but I was in good shape and I guess they liked what they saw,” Rozier said Tuesday during the combine, its third year at WSSU.

Rozier has found a steady paycheck, first on Kurt Busch’s pit crew where Rozier worked at the Daytona 500 last year, and recently for other pit crews in the NASCAR Truck Series and the Xfinity Series.

Rozier was back at WSSU at Whitaker Gym on Tuesday helping Phil Horton, the director of the combine who is a former athletics trainer and strength coach for the Milwaukee Bucks in the mid-1990s. Horton, who is the pit crew coach for the Drive for Diversity program, worked with four former WSSU football players and assistant WSSU track coach Austin Davis on Tuesday morning.

The five were timed in a progression of cardio workouts starting with jumping rope 100 times. They moved on to 25 knee raises over cones before doing five sets of ladder drills and then 20 pushups. After the pushups they had to do 25 abdominal rolls and then 100 crunches.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how I can do,” said defensive lineman Duvontae Covington, the CIAA defensive player of the year. “I’m using this as another chance for possible employment down the road. You can’t have too many options.”

Covington, who graduated in December and is 6-2 and 285 pounds, attended an NFL regional combine in Baltimore earlier this year and also worked out for NFL scouts at the Wake Forest pro day last month. There’s a chance he could sign as a free agent with an NFL team after the draft in May.

“I really believe it’s all about who you know, and Ricky went through this program already so if a job comes about because of this, I’m all for listening,” Covington said.

Running back Maurice Lewis, wide receiver Eric Wolff and defensive back Shaquan Manning all went through the drills.

“One of my passions is working on cars,” Covington said. “And when I was in high school (at Greensboro Dudley), we had to take an automotive technology class so I like being around cars.”

Lewis, a four-year starter for the Rams who is fifth in school history in rushing with 3,124 yards, will graduate in May and says joining the pit-crew program is a possibility.

“It’s a job opportunity, and we’ve seen Ricky kind of pave the way for us and started in that direction, and it’s worked out for him,” Lewis said. “It’s another opportunity that many of us who graduate in May are trying to attain.”

Horton says that if the athletes are serious about joining the development program they would come and train in Concord under Horton’s supervision. Rozier went through the program and says after he got his foot in the door working on Busch’s crew it led to other opportunities.

“This is a program to recruit drivers and pit-crew members into the sport,” Horton said. “This program is run by Max Ziegal and his Rev Racing team. He’s also the current president of USA Track & Field.”

Horton says the program has been well received. Other former college stars such as running back Kevin Richardson and quarterback Richie Williams of Appalachian State also went through the program and became employed by Rousch Fenway Racing.

“We’ve been doing this since 2009, and we’ve had roughly 70 individuals come through the program,” Horton said, “and about 40 who have went on to participate in one of NASCAR’s racing series.”

Horton said there are currently close to 30 who are working full time in racing that first went through his program.

“We look at their agility and their foot work and their core body,” Horton said. “We don’t tax them too much, and then we take them out to the car that we have outside and show them what we actually need to be done when the drivers pull into the pits.”

After the conditioning drills, Horton and Rozier showed the athletes what the pit-crew does. Outside of Whitaker Gym there was a race car set up where Horton and his assistants showed the athletes what happens during a race.

There are six pit-crew members who jump over the wall to attend to car — a Jackman , two tire changers, two tire carriers and one gas man. They all have to be in great shape and know where to go to make sure their driver gets back on the track as soon as possible.

“We’ve done these combines at Johnson C. Smith and Winston-Salem State and I’m based in Concord but we do it mostly at those two schools because they are local,” Horton said.

Lewis joked that after four years of getting hit playing football his body isn’t what it used to be. But he says getting into the sport of racing is something he might be interested in doing.

“This is a new door for us so we have to explore it,” Lewis said.

Lewis also praised Rozier, a 2014 graduate of WSSU, for helping get his former teammates involved.

“It’s always good to see somebody giving back like Ricky is doing,” Lewis said, “and one day I want to do the same thing.”