Ten years after donning football pads, former NFL defensive end Jared Odrick still puts on protective equipment and competes. He just does so in a wildly different arena.
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He races stock cars while continuing his path through the racing ranks. That journey will continue this Friday and Saturday as he competes in the NASCAR Canada event on the Streets of Markham, Ontario. (Aug. 15 at 4:45 p.m. ET)
This will mark his second start in the series, and it will help him further grow in a different athletic arena as he takes on champions from the international ranks.
"Racing definitely has given my life new meaning, new purpose, and it feels like, a lot of the discipline that I missed as a young 20-something professional football player," Odrick told media members ahead of his race weekend in Ontario.
"I'm definitely thinking about a lot in all my emotions now of preparing to be in the car on race weekend, and it's not that I'm like making up for lost time or lost discipline, but at times, it feels like that."
Odrick, a first-round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, spent seven seasons pursuing a goal. He sought to chase down the quarterback to disrupt the opposing offense.
He achieved some success in this arena while playing for the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars, tallying 23.5 career sacks and 170 combined tackles.
Photo credit: Corey Grantham
But he also felt the call of a different competitive arena near the end of his NFL career. His love of motorsports began to blossom after he signed a deal to join the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2015.
"When I signed that Jaguars deal, me and two buddies went out to Vegas to kind of celebrate, and we went out there and we did this dream track experience," Odrick explained. "I forget the name of the track, but there were all these different supercars available to me, and it was obviously a road course. It wasn't an oval.
"And I tried to get into a (Lamborghini). It didn't fit. Tried to get into, I think, a Ferrari. Didn't fit. I think I tried to get into an Acura, didn't fit.
"The only car that I had fit into was the GT3 Porsche because it wasn't racing bucket seats; they were regular, driving pedestrian seats, and I had to wear a helmet too. So I drove the GT3 car like this the whole time, and I was told I tied the patron record that day. So that sparked something."
Most race car drivers don't have to necessarily worry about fitting in the car. Yes, Todd Gilliland, Cody Ware, and Austin Cindric are all over 6 feet, but they are slender.
Odrick, who is 6-foot-5-inches, played at 300-plus pounds. Though he is approximately 50 pounds lighter now that he has retired and made changes to his exercise and nutrition plans.
He focuses more on endurance exercises than he does on weightlifting. He does intermittent fasting, meaning that he does not eat for extended periods of time. This is a change from football when players at his position just had to eat as many calories as possible.
Motorsports was not a new love for Odrick per se; he had grown up casually watching rally races near a family cabin in Pennsylvania. But he had continued to focus more on traditional stick and ball sports while working his way to the top level of professional football.
It was only after he retired from the NFL that this spark from the trip to Las Vegas became a full-on love of racing and put him on the path to the Trans Am Series and the NASCAR Canada Series.
He just had to first run into an old family friend, "Uncle Ed," during a trip to the West Coast in 2021.
"Uncle Ed he drove Spec Miata in SCCA (Sports Car Club of America), and he invited me to one of his races out at High Plains Raceway in Colorado," Odrick explained.
"And I showed up, and I just couldn't believe that there were that many racers that weren't like racers first, but were dentists or lawyers or mechanics or teachers that were there racing and racing seriously and competitively.
"And I was like, I didn't know this world existed. I didn't know that I could be a football player first or something else that didn't inherit racing and still race seriously."
Odrick saw the potential to get involved in racing, and he took action. He purchased a Porsche 991.1 GT3 Cup Car and began competing in SCCA in 2022. He then won in 2023.
Odrick started competing in Trans Am's TA2 Series Pro/Am Challenge in 2024, and he scored a class win at Road America in a Ford Mustang. He added four more wins in 2025, including the season finale at Circuit of the Americas.
Photo credit: Corey Grantham
He continues to compete in the road racing series while also dipping his racing shoes into the world of NASCAR Canada. This is a process that began back in 2024.
Odrick competed behind the wheel of a Mercedes GT4 race car during a doubleheader event in Quebec. He had fun mixing it up in the mixed class field as his girlfriend — now his wife — watched. Once his race finished, they took in the action of the NASCAR Canada event.
It was at that time that his girlfriend turned to him and said, "What you did was cool, but that right there is pretty freaking cool."
Odrick knew that he wanted to reach this racing series, so he put in considerable effort behind the scenes in pursuit of this goal. He competed in Trans Am and won races. He did extensive film study.
He also tested his brain while doing tasks in the sauna or on the exercise bike. He wanted to focus on his cognitive abilities during physical activities after recognizing the connection behind the wheel.
The work is paying dividends, and now he is getting the opportunity to compete in the NASCAR Canada Series over multiple race weekends.
So what is next for the former NFL defender-turned-race car driver? What is his next goal for this chapter of his life?
The answer remains wide open. He sees the different paths, all of which bring exciting possibilities. This includes wanting to make his debut in the Craftsman Truck Series or O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.
He also knows the role that sponsors will play in securing opportunities. He has worked on putting his program together, so he knows what it takes.
"I would love to say I want to be a NASCAR Cup driver, but I'm not sure if that's in the cards for me," Odrick said.
"I would love to be able to race and compete for a NASCAR International Championship, whether that's NASCAR Europe, NASCAR Mexico, NASCAR Canada. I'd love to do something like that."
For now, Odrick will focus on his immediate task — competing on the streets of Markham. He will first take on practice on Friday, Aug. 14, at 5 p.m. ET. Qualifying follows at 5:35 p.m. ET.
The NASCAR Canada Series race will take place on Saturday, Aug. 15. Green flag is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. ET. REV TV, TVA Sports 2 and the NASCAR Canada YouTube channel will have coverage.
