(WSVN) - Former Dolphins first-round pick Jared Odrick once raced to sack quarterbacks. Now the former defensive end still has a need for speed, this time on the track.
Odrick grew up loving cars but never had an interest to go racing, until he retired from the NFL in 2016.
“The car becomes this natural cell, if you will, for my behavior and for my focus and for my intensity because I am an intense person, right? Especially when I focus and put my energy into something,” he said.
Around four years ago, Odrick completed his driver’s school test. He was successful in the Trans Am Series before he got behind the wheel of a stock car.
He is now currently in the NASCAR Canada Series, where they develop drivers to hopefully race in one of NASCAR’s big three.
“I’d love to get in a NASCAR truck, I’d love to race in the O’Reilly Series, I would love to get to the cup level,” said Odrick. “I’d love to continue representing what it means for a football or an NFL athlete to be able to switch into something like NASCAR and be competitive.”
The road that Odrick, 38, is on hasn’t always been a smooth ride, as he’s competing against younger, more experienced drivers.
“Putting my whole program together, either myself or finding and fighting, really fighting to find sponsorship to make some of these things happen, I know that I could compete at any stock car level, and that’s honestly how I feel, like if I approached it properly, trained properly, did enough sim work, got enough seat time,” he said.
With his new passion in life, Odrick’s NFL career is now in the rearview mirror.
“I don’t miss football, no, I don’t miss playing it. Of course, I can appreciate the game, but racing definitely has given my life new meaning, new purpose,” he said. “And it feels like a lot of the discipline that I missed as a young 20-something professional football player, I’m definitely thinking about a lot in all my emotions now of preparing to be in the car on race weekend.”
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