Long before becoming a winning Xfinity pit crew member with Joe Gibbs Racing, Greg Powell already had launched himself several stories in the air, jumped out of airplanes and created a renowned signature bike flip.
You might have heard of his cousin — action sports superstar Travis Pastrana.
Pastrana and Powell spent much of their childhood together trying to figure out how to fling themselves into the Chesapeake Bay.
Known as Special Greg or Super Greg, Powell didn’t necessarily dream of a career in racing before he began working on pit crews across Truck, Xfinity and Cup. Instead, he spent years doing wild stunts such as jumping off ramps on bikes and big wheels.
That is something he developed a knack for, which led to performances on multiple continents with Pastrana and several other extreme sports athletes.
There are generations of kids who put a piece of plywood on a pile of bricks to form a ramp for their bicycles. The majority pursue different career paths.
Know Your Tricks: Special Flip @Special_Greg #NitroCircus pic.twitter.com/jQVbNS2IJs
— Nitro Circus (@NitroCircus) January 6, 2017
The difference lies in Powell’s childhood.
He is the son of a military man and had to learn new sports based on where the family was stationed. He became an all-around athlete instead of simply focusing on baseball, soccer, football or lacrosse.
Powell also made frequent trips to Annapolis, Maryland, where Pastrana lived. That is where the cousins tested themselves in wildly different ways.
“That Huffy plywood brick jump, that’s gonna be a little bit more on steroids when it comes to Travis,” Powell joked with NBC Sports. “Like we were down at the woodpile building the ramp that was way taller than we were.
“It was way too heavy. We had all this scrap wood and we put plywood and it was so, so steep. We didn’t know what we were doing when we built this thing.
“And we were like, ‘Okay, now we have got to get it to the end of the pier so we could jump off into the (Chesapeake Bay).”
The solution to the problem? Using their uncles’ construction equipment to get the ramp into a dump truck for the trip to the pier.
Once the ramp was in place, it was time to strap some life jackets to the bikes and start attempting tricks.
“That was kind of the beginning of, the Special Flip, for example,” Powell said about his signature trick in which he does an off-axis backflip with one hand on the bike seat. “It was just a way to explore the next dimension of … it’s a Huffy, piece of plywood and some bricks, and you’re just launching yourself and you’re just exploring what’s possible.
“And that definitely crept in and I fell for it just like all the other action sports guys. Just became something that you can’t deny, that type of adrenaline rush and that type of freedom.”
Powell continued to embrace this adrenaline rush as he grew older. He traveled the world with Pastrana and other members of the Nitro Circus crew while filming the “Nitro Circus” series for MTV. He jumped out of airplanes, rode bulls, jumped recliners off ramps into bodies of water and attempted flips on dirt bikes.
However, Powell didn’t simply focus on extreme sports. He attended the University of Maryland where he was a wide receiver and a member of the special teams on the football squad. Powell attended graduate school in Baltimore to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy.
Though he still joined Pastrana for a last-minute trip to Jamaica to build a huge slip-and-slide on the edge of a cliff overlooking the water.
“I was halfway through the program, and my cousin’s like, ‘Hey, Greg, can you come back and do ‘Nitro Circus’ again?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I’ve almost got my (doctorate) degree in physical therapy, like, things are going good. Just leave me alone.’
“And he’s like, ‘Well, I kind of already bought tickets to Jamaica for this weekend.’”
Despite having an important exam the following Monday, Powell still headed to Jamaica with a big container of lubricant for the slip-and-slide.
“I’m like, ‘How this is gonna get through customs? What do you want me to tell them?’”
Despite having concerns about the “luggage,” Powell successfully transported it to Jamaica without issues. However, the slip-and-slide idea ultimately failed.
The temperature was too hot, so the lubricant evaporated almost instantaneously. Fellow “Nitro Circus” member Aaron “Crum” Sauvage actually burned some skin off his stomach during a test run and made it appear that he had six-pack abs.
Undeterred, the crew chose to use the ramp for a different purpose — completing flips. One person rode a skateboard down the ramp. Powell borrowed a small bike from a local kid and rode it. He completed a backflip on the 45-foot descent — without pads, a helmet or shoes — and landed in the water.
Powell then attempted a double backflip.
“Jamaica, that was kind of the beginning of me getting back into ‘Nitro Circus,’” Powell said.
The original “Nitro Circus” ended as a show after 24 episodes on MTV, but the brand continued with live tours around the world, another four seasons as the spinoff “Nitro Circus Live” and a movie.
And Powell was along for the ride.
The group of extreme athletes traveled to arenas, set up massive ramps and then pulled off increasingly difficult stunts in front of thousands of fans. Some athletes jumped skateboards and BMX bikes. Others rode in purpose-built mini-Volkswagen buses and jumped those.
Powell was heavily involved in these trips, even as he was dabbling in the world of NASCAR.
Powell had followed Pastrana to Michael Waltrip Racing after his cousin signed a deal to drive in the K&N Pro Series East and the Xfinity Series — known then as the Nationwide Series. Powell joined the pit crew developmental program so that he could earn a spot going over the wall.
While Powell worked with pit crew coaches Kevin Sharpe and Greg Miller at the team shop, he also set up a schedule that would allow him to travel the world.
“(Sharpe and Miller) saw that I was just eager to be involved as much as possible (on pit stops),” Powell said. “And I’d let them know like, ‘Okay, we got this tour. I gotta go to Australia for two months. But when I come back, can I still work with you guys?’
“They were all, ‘Absolutely.’ They loved it. They really supported me in that way.”
Being able to continue traveling the world was significant for Powell. He visited new locales with Nitro Circus — his favorites were in South Africa — and he performed jaw-dropping tricks. He even landed his signature move — The Special Flip — for the first time during a live show after practicing in foam pits for a decade.
“I had been working on (The Special Flip) and I knew I could do it,” Powell said. “But to me, it was more of a pride thing. I was like, ‘I want to stick this. I really want this to work. I don’t want it to just be kind of like something that oh, yeah, maybe he’ll get it one day.’”
Powell landed The Special Flip for the first time in March 2011 during a live show in Australia. Video of the trick — which Powell completed after clearing a 32-foot gap — then generated more than 1.8 million views on YouTube in one month, per ESPN.
Powell went on to land The Special Flip numerous other times over the years as he moved further and further into the world of NASCAR. Though he ultimately put the life of extreme sports behind him as he transitioned full-time to his role as a tire carrier.
Powell has worked with a variety of teams since those early days at Michael Waltrip Racing. He has spent time with Kyle Busch Motorsports, Kaulig Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Germain Racing, JTG Daugherty Racing, Rackley W.A.R., Front Row Motorsports, and Tricon Garage. This run included race wins with Chandler Smith.
Now, Powell suits up full time for Joe Gibbs Racing, something that was a goal from early in his NASCAR career. Powell grew up near Washington, D.C., so he was a fan of Joe Gibbs the coach. He also read one Gibbs’s books in high school and gained a greater appreciation for how the two-time Hall of Famer operated.
Powell has celebrated several Xfinity wins with John Hunter Nemechek over the past two seasons. He has also won races with Ryan Truex.
“I grew up watching ‘Nitro Circus’ and things of that sort,” Nemechek told NBC Sports. “I’ve been able to be around Travis Pastrana — and Greg on the last few years on the Truck side pitting my truck and on the Xfinity side.
“It’s definitely been cool to be part of and to be able to experience that with Greg but (also) being able to go back and ask about old episodes that he was in and really just kind of pick his brain on some of the crazy stuff that they were doing back in the day.”
Last season, Powell enjoyed a full-circle moment after more than a decade pursuing this career in NASCAR. He was the tire carrier for the No. 67 Toyota fielded by 23XI Racing during the Daytona 500. The driver was Pastrana, who finished 11th in his first-ever Cup start.
“When (Pastrana) finally got the opportunity to run the Daytona 500, I was there waiting in the wings and ready to help him,” Powell said.
“That was a blast. That was such a fun time and to see him finish so well was surely a dream come true — I think, for him — and then for me, just to be able to support him. Certainly, one of my goals is always to be there for him.”
Completing a pit stop is a far cry from flipping a bike off a cliff. What drives Powell now that he isn’t spiking his adrenaline so frequently or constantly traveling the world?
Powell points to two main factors. The first is competition. He has embraced every opportunity to compete against others in front of spectators, whether it was on the football field, at an arena filled with ramps, or at a track during a pivotal race.
The second thing driving this chapter of Powell’s life is self-improvement.
“I think learning is kind of the fun part,” Powell said. “Even though it’s the challenging part and it kind of makes you feel like you’re not good at anything.
“… Whether you’re learning a BMX trick, or you’re learning how not to do a stunt that you’ve thought up — there are plenty of examples of those things going poorly. I think just the opportunity to learn and see what NASCAR is all about, the racing industry, is just second to none.”
Powell is no longer jumping bikes in front of thousands of screaming fans, nor is he jumping out of airplanes or riding bulls. He’s testing himself in a different athletic arena while celebrating multiple wins.
Yet there is no forgetting the trips around the world and the thousands of flips through the air.
“I just can’t stop smiling about all the fun that we’ve had through the years,” Powell said as he leaned back in his chair with a big grin on his face.
