Through word of mouth, Evernham met Andy Papathanassiou, who at the time was interested in creating a pit crew training program for NASCAR teams. Papathanassiou eventually joined the No. 24 DuPont team as a crew member and began coordinating the training on Jeff Gordon's pit crew.

Typically, training took place twice a week, after hours. At the time, most of the pit athletes had jobs outside Hendrick Motorsports and their only free time to practice was after work.

Initially, the style of training Papathanassiou emphasized with the crew mimicked race conditions such as lifting and carrying tires, and used exercises that trained with body weight.

In the early part of the 1990s, NASCAR teams strived to have pit stops that were under 18 seconds. Today a good time is considered around 13-14 seconds.

In 1996 the program came full circle when a gym was built at Hendrick Motorsports and a pit wall was constructed for practices behind the chassis shop. Papathanassiou then began to develop programs for all of the Hendrick pit crews and directed their trainings.

The "Pit Department," as it came to be known, began expanding in 2001 with the addition of strength and conditioning coach Mark Morrison. Today, several specialized pit crew coaches oversee the development of Hendrick's four Cup teams.

Pit stop practice and workout frequency vary depending on what stage of the NASCAR season it is. Generally workouts are between two to three times a week during the season and four to five times a week during the off-season.

Today, the focus of pit crew training has shifted to concentrate on muscular fitness, endurance, flexibility and body-core strengthening, in addition to the pit stop practices. Nearly all Hendrick pit athletes are employees at Hendrick Motorsports with full-time positions in the team shops, engine or chassis departments.

Since the inception of pit crew training in 1992 at Hendrick Motorsports, the Cup pit crews have collected pit crew championship titles in 1992, 1994, and 1996.