Kennedy Jones Moves from the Diamond to Pit Road

Former South Carolina outfielder Kennedy Jones’ career is on the fast track. Well, technically it’s in the pits, but that’s a good thing. Jones has spent the last year as a tire changer and road crew mechanic for Team Penske in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“I’ve been working Penske for about a year,” said Jones, who played two seasons for the Gamecocks in 2024 and 2025 after spending his first two years at UNC Greensboro and finished his collegiate career with a .327 batting average and 36 home runs. “I’m not pitting at the track yet. I’m still on what we call the bullpen squad. I go to the track every weekend, and if somebody gets hurt, I would sub in as a front tire changer. I’m also on the roster for the #22 team for Joey Logano as a labor mechanic. I help with the road crew and set stuff up, prep all the tires for the races, and run tires during the race.

“They’re doing this new thing for guys who are newer to the track so they can learn about the sport. They’re used to having athletes that don’t know much about the sport. The best way to get experience before you’re actually pitting a car is to go to the track and help out every weekend.”

While he’s not in the “starting lineup” yet for the pit crew, he’s still there working every race.

“I’ve been to every race there has been so far this year,” said Jones. “Most of them, I go early with the road crew. Usually I’m there on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday or if it’s a west coast race, I get there on Thursday. The first win was at North Wilkesboro, so that might be my favorite so far.”

Jones got into the pit because his brother, Sheridan, who is a former Clemson football player, also works for Penske.

“He started this a year before me, and when they found out he had a brother who was athletic, they asked if I was interested in the pit crew,” Jones said. “I still had some Major League Baseball dreams, but when I kept getting hurt my senior year and wasn’t able to play the way I thought I could, I decided to take this opportunity more seriously.”

After graduating from South Carolina with a degree in service management, he shadowed his brother for a week and discovered this was something he’d like to do.

“They have combines for this where they bring in all these different college athletes or people that played in the Canadian Football League or the NFL, so they sort of hand-pick the kind of people they want,” Jones said. “I had a tryout, went through the interview process, and now I’m here.

“What I like about it is that I’m competing every day. The goal for us on the pit crew side is fast pit stops. We do a lot of drill work. There’s a bullpen team and development group, and I’ve moved up from the development group. So, if something happens to someone on the pit crew, I would go straight in. I just work a lot on fast pit stops and exchanges. I’m a front tire changer, so I work on how fast and accurately I can get on to the hub. It’s about competing every day and trying to get better.”

Jones wasn’t a huge NASCAR aficionado growing up, but he’s learning quickly about all aspects of the sport and waiting for his number to be called for the main pit crew.

“I think I might have watched a few NASCAR races before just because my brother was doing it,” Jones said. “It’s fairly dangerous. There are a lot of accidents on pit road.

“The best part about my job is being able to travel to all these states and compete. I’m still a part of a team and working to get better.”

While he misses playing baseball a little bit, he’s still involved with the game in a different way as an assistant coach at Hough High School in North Carolina with Team Penske located in Mooresville, and he still gets a thrill on the field as well as in his new career.

“I have a lot of baseball knowledge, and I like to give back,” Jones said. “Sometimes in races during cautions, you beat two cars coming out of pit road to take over the number spot, and it feels like hitting an RBI double in the ninth or hitting a walk-off home run. It’s a whole different world.”