Forgive Ray Wright for being glued to his television set in the basement of his home last week in Advance, N.C.

He couldn't help himself. As a member of the 2000 national championship baseball team from Louisiana State University, he and a few fellow LSU fans in his neighborhood got together to watch the 2009 LSU Tigers march through the latest College World Series and do the same, defeating Texas 2 games to 1 in the final to claim the national title.

Wright, now the 30-year-old strength and conditioning coach for Richard Childress Racing after spending some time playing in baseball's minor leagues following college, recently talked about his LSU past and the interesting path he took to his current job.

Q: Well, your LSU Tigers did it again, didn't they?

Wright: I tell you what, they kind of walked through Omaha a little bit. ... In the last 15 games of the season or so, they were burning down the barn.

Q: Before we get back to LSU baseball, talk a little about your role as strength and conditioning coach at RCR. It's a role that has taken on increased importance in racing organizations in recent years, isn't it?

Wright: I don't think there is any question about that. My job is to increase the athletic ability of pit-crew members. ... Our program is a grueling deal for these guys. They work very hard. I get 'em for an hour. They have one hour for their pit practice and one hour with me in the gym -- and I don't make anything comfortable for them.

It's very warm in our facility. I keep it dimly lit; there are no mirrors; there's not a real comfortable place to sit down. Stressers are put there intentionally to kind of mimic the racing -- especially now in these summer months. These guys are going to be called upon to do maybe eight, 10 stops in sweltering heat with firesuits on -- and their last stop has to be just as good as their first stop. The only way I know how to prepare them for that is what we're doing -- hitting them very hard and making it uncomfortable. Everything you do in the gym is artificial training for what you actually have to do.

Q: How do the guys respond to that?

Wright: For the two years I've been here, the guys have been really wonderful. They take it. They've grown to really enjoy it -- and then they have to go back down to the race shop and build race cars. So there is a lot to be said for their attitude and what they've accomplished so far.

Q: You guys apparently get a whole lot done in one hour ... ?

Wright: And sometimes the workouts don't even last an hour. I figure if I get them in there and get them working at a high-intensity pace, I can get everything in that needs to be done. Because I've also got to scale in their recovery time. During the course of such a long season, recovery is 50 percent of their training.

If they're dragging during the week, that's fine with me. Because they're going to go through the practices and get all that in, and if they're a touch tired, that's fine. But we've got to orchestrate it so that they're at their best on Sundays. That's the trick to it. (Continued)