You might remember Chris Snyder as a hard-nosed defensive lineman on Penn State’s late ’90s teams. You might not know that Snyder ’97 then spent nearly a decade as an Arena Football League standout before retiring from the game in 2008. But even before he stepped away from football, he had embarked on a career as a fitness trainer that led him to work in another intense, competitive field: auto racing.
To be clear, Snyder isn’t driving—squeezing into an Indy Car cockpit is probably not an ideal career choice for a guy who played at 6-3, 270. Instead, since 2003, he has served as strength and conditioning coach for Chip Ganassi Racing. We learned this thanks to Cait Knoll ’09, a College of Com grad now working as a video producer for The Drive.
Cait was in Indianapolis last weekend for the 500, and ended up with some very cool behind-the-scenes footage of how Chris whips a pit crew into world-class shape. You can watch it by clicking on the image below.
Thanks to Cait, and to Mike Poorman ’82 for the heads up on this one.