It’s that wonderful time of year again.
The air’s crisp. Everyone’s waiting to see who’s on the nice list and who’s getting the boot. Smoke doesn’t just curl from chimneys as nights grow short — it rises from engine dynos and welding sparks as teams tinker, tweak and twist every nut and bolt for the season ahead. Instead of partridges in a pear tree, it’s new paint schemes, sponsor swaps and awkward goodbyes. This isn’t Christmas — it’s Silly Season, NASCAR’s annual game of musical chairs where the only constant is change.
The clock flashes 12:59 p.m. as Monon Rahman ‘19 EN roars into a nearly deserted parking lot on the north side of Charlotte, the epicenter of stock car racing in North Carolina. It’s a rare Thursday afternoon off for the team. He pulls in for a one o’clock pit stop to reflect on his passions, achievements and ambitions. Arriving seconds early, his timing is as precise as the work he oversees in the garage with its brutal fluorescent lights reflecting off polished tools and oil-stained concrete. Coolly stepping out of his GR86 coupe and sporting his team’s Toyota-branded racing attire, he resembles the high-octane star of some tires-and-checkered-flag flick like “Days of Thunder” or “F1” as he gallops toward the entrance.
Rahman’s been with the legendary Joe Gibbs Racing team for nearly two years. Just 26, he’s already risen to the primary race engineer for car No. 54 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driven by Taylor Gray. It’s a dream job for the Frankfort, Kentucky, native. Still, during Silly Season, he keeps his eyes open for opportunities that could lead to his ultimate ambition: crew chief.
For the uninitiated, NASCAR is part science experiment, part demolition derby, and part traveling roadshow. Forty stock cars outfitted with fire-breathing V8s hurl around an oval track at nearly 200 mph while crews juggle math, mechanics and mayhem on pit road in the pressure cooker of more than 70,000 fans each week. Beneath the spectacle lies an engineering arms race where fractions of a second decide who’s a hero and who’s packing up the hauler by sundown.
The sport is built like a set of stepping stones, each series shaping drivers and engineers for the next level. Many crew members start in ARCA — the Automobile Racing Club of America — a proving ground where rookies, part-timers and hungry up-and-comers learn the ropes on everything from short tracks to superspeedways. That’s where Rahman got his start. From there, many climb into the Xfinity Series, a national stage packed with rising stars and seasoned racers. At the top sits the Cup Series — NASCAR’s crown jewel — where the sport’s best teams chase glory under the brightest lights.
“By the time I’m 30, I want to be leading a car full time — that’s the goal,” he says.
He explains that NASCAR is “definitely a hard industry to break into,” but believes his youth gives him time to learn, fail and grow.
Rahman’s knack for problem-solving, paired with a curiosity for how things work — virtues inherited from his parents — runs through everything he does, always pushing his limits to the redline, from childhood play to his first real taste of racing. He fell for the sport the way many kids do: with matchbox-sized toys that roared across linoleum floor and movies that made cars feel alive.
“My friends and I, we played with Hot Wheels all the time,” remembers Rahman with a victory-lane grin. “Then ‘Cars’ came out. We all kind of point to ‘Cars’ as a pivot in culture for us … it made racing cool. It made NASCAR cool.”
Video games sealed the deal.
“Gran Turismo … Need for Speed … even Mario Kart,” recounts Rahman, rattling off some of the influential titles, several of which he continues to enjoy as an adult.
Drawn in by the competitive nature, ever-changing technology and continuous challenges of motorsports, Rahman was hooked on NASCAR by the time he reached high school.
“It was maybe 2010. 2011? … I just remember really starting to watch it on TV a lot more,” he says. “Once I got introduced to that, I was like, ‘How do I go work in this?’”
Realizing that he’d likely not be in the driver’s seat due to the stiff competition and the fact that others his age were already seasoned behind the wheel, Rahman looked at options that would allow him to be part of the action, part of a winning team. Mechanical engineering looked like the best all-around route to the garage, so he set his sights on UK — helped by a full-ride pathway via the Governor’s School for the Arts scholarship.
“Ultimately, Kentucky was my best bet,” he says. “I ended up getting everything I needed to succeed right at home.”
On campus, between classes and studying, Rahman split his time between hands-on engineering teams and creative projects. He managed the Solar Car Team and led aero and body work for the Formula Kentucky racing (FSAE) program, all while exploring screenwriting and short-film work with friends.
His parents are computer science engineers, but Rahman attributes his creativity to his mother, who is also an accomplished artist.
“It was a good release from the engineering … just enjoyable work,” he says of the university’s Media Depot, where he worked in college and honed his creativity and multimedia skills. “The creative part opens up your thought process a little bit more and you see a bigger picture.
That creative outlet turned out to be more than just a pastime — it became his first bridge into professional racing. Rahman says that former UK mathematics Professor Molly Fisher invited NASCAR driver Ben Rhodes to campus to meet the student racing teams. Rhodes suggested reaching out to Venturini Motorsports for opportunities.
“I had camera experience, and when I was cold-emailing teams, Emily Venturini — the wife of team owner Billy Venturini — noticed it on my résumé,” Rahman explains. “They didn’t have any engineering positions open at the time, but because of my camera work, I was able to intern and help them out with some camera tools in practice, then shadow the rest of the weekend. It turned out to be my first real link to the NASCAR world in college — and obviously, we’ve seen where that ended up taking me!”
Looking back on his time at UK, however, Rahman points to Stanley Pigman — namesake of the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering — as one of the most formative influences on where he is today.
Rahman recalls how Pigman became a steady source of encouragement and support from Rahman’s freshman year.
“I wouldn't be where I’m at without Stan,” Rahman says plainly. “He gave us the belief and the backing to make things happen. He's so genuine. Every interaction I’ve ever had with him, I've felt like he truly cares about you as a student and your individual goals.”
Pigman’s passion for engineering and cars was infectious, inspiring Rahman and his peers to push the limits of their student-built vehicles. Beyond generous financial support he offered the motorsports teams, Rahman says Pigman offered practical guidance and insight, helping the teams turn ambitious ideas into competitive reality.
Rahman’s time juggling engineering teams and creative projects laid the groundwork for the career he’d build. He says the problem-solving and teamwork demanded by these student organizations taught lessons he still carries into NASCAR today.
“I can’t emphasize enough how much I valued the student org experience at UK,” Rahman says. “The teamwork and analytical thinking we needed on both solar car and FSAE helped shape my expectations through my career in NASCAR so far. There were definitely some tough days, but some of the most fun moments and best learning opportunities I’ve had came with those groups.”
After earning his engineering degree at 19, Rahman interned for NASCAR and was named Outstanding Intern of the Year at the 2020 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Awards. Soon after, he cut his professional teeth at Rick Ware Racing, analyzing driver and vehicle performance while learning the nuances of race strategy.
“Working there taught me how to adapt quickly — every car, every driver, every weekend was different,” he says.
Rahman quickly began working his way up from the back of the grid. During his three-year stint in ARCA — the gateway NASCAR subsidiary — he put the pedal to the metal at Venturini Motorsports, where he didn’t just engineer cars; he built up their entire simulation usage from the ground up and got his first taste of being a crew chief as a reward.
Rahman shifts into a higher gear as he recounts the story of a 2023 race in Kern County, California with driver Sean Hingorani at the wheel, a thrilling win earned with a makeshift crew comprised of himself (as crew chief), a couple of mechanics and his mentor, Billy Venturini, while the main team was off at Talladega.
“We’re borrowing someone else’s toolbox…had kind of a skeleton crew,” he laughs of the notorious Kern County race. “So, it was a little tough from the get-go, but we got through practice…and the car was flawless!”
A penalty put them a lap down; but by halfway, the rag-tag team was back on the lead lap — and then they finished the job.
“Somehow, Sean holds the others off and wins the race!” Rahman recalls. “That validated everything I’ve wanted to do, why I want to be crew chief. It was just special because, I mean, you put so much time and effort into it every single day, every single week, you kind of lose sight of it while you’re doing it. In those moments when you win, it makes up for all the days where everything’s been a pain.”
That stretch also reinforced the leadership model he wants to bring to a NASCAR Cup or Xfinity pit box someday. It’s about standards and resilience — attributes that guide every decision and define every action in high-pressure moments.
Racing isn't for the faint of heart; it demands everything you have and then some. The late nights, the escalating pressure, the constant travel — it weeds out anyone who isn’t dedicated to NASCAR.
“You have to be pretty passionate to want to do this,” Rahman confides. “You’re away from home every week from February through November. When it gets tough, when it's the 11th hour on a really late night, you find out who’s truly committed.”
That doesn’t leave much room for outside interests, a sacrifice Rahman is willing to make for what he calls "a performance-based sport where we're competing to be the best."
Rahman parallels his family’s early struggle with his drive to succeed.
“Being Bengali, being immigrants … they had to fight for a lot of the opportunities they had,” he explains. That experience shaped his approach: excellence isn't negotiable.
Despite the perks of his high-profile position on an A-list team —private jets, travel, celebrity connections — Rahman says the relentless demands on personal relationships keep many younger professionals from staying in the sport long-term. For him, that level of commitment isn’t optional — it’s in his DNA.
“I think that competition part of it definitely comes from my parents, just making sure I’m putting in 110%,” Rahman says.
At Gibbs, he’s in a place that puts those instincts to work. Describing the race engineer job as a “jack of all trades,” Rahman's typical week balances a gauntlet of tasks and challenges, each measured in tenths of a second and carrying real consequences on the track: modeling car setups on Monday and Tuesday during the season, then taking that data into the simulator to test and fine-tune. The challenge is translating abstract numbers into how the car actually feels for the driver, tuning everything from suspension stiffness to aero balance — all of it done fast enough to be ready for race day.
“Your goal is to make this car run as quickly as possible … while trying to keep the driver happy and executing strategy,” Monon explains of the constant mental puzzle that demands both precision and outside-the-box thinking.
Crew chief jobs are few and far between. To achieve his end goal, Rahman knows he may have to switch lanes maybe even to a new team. Someday. It’s not a move he’s eager to make, but it’s the nature of the sport. He beams like the red, green and gold lights on a track when he talks about the scale and camaraderie of the Gibbs program.
“We’re really grateful to have two engineers per car with the level of detail of work that we do,” he explains, not taking the organization’s logo overhead for granted. “Gibbs is one of those brands where it doesn’t get much better than this. The people here are top-of-the-line.”
Mid-sentence, as if on cue, one of the coworkers he talks about keeping happy pokes his head in to say hi. It’s Gray, the charismatic and spirited driver of car No. 54. Like Rahman, Gray — only 20 — has already found early success.
“Taylor has actually been one of the best people I’ve worked with … if we have a bad day, he doesn’t take it out on us … we all move on, go to next week,” Rahman says.
The shared history helps; they battled each other in ARCA and “now we’re working together,” Rahman adds, noting how much they bond over “what it’s like on the other side” and how to seize opportunities at Gibbs.
Ask what keeps him coming back, and Rahman talks about the creative challenge — finding elegant solutions under pressure, the fun nestling alongside the stakes.
“We do so many cool things on a daily basis,” he raves, and he wants the next generation to see it.
Although many people think of NASCAR as a uniquely American pastime — born on the dirt tracks and superspeedways of the South — it's grown into a global phenomenon. From Canada to Europe to Asia, fans follow the sport, its reach expanding season to season. Against that backdrop, Rahman sees himself as more than an engineer chasing wins. Carving out a career in a sport not traditionally associated with people with his experiences and background, he understands the power of representation. Rahman is often the first Bengali that many colleagues have met. His success doesn't just reflect his skills and commitment — it signals to others worldwide that there's a place for them in NASCAR, too.
“Parents immigrating to the U.S. sacrifice a lot for their first-gen children so that we can truly enjoy our lives, and I think that's the epitome of what the ‘American dream’ is,” Rahman says. “Let’s face it... I don't think many people could go from my background into what I do, but here I am.”
For Rahman, visibility is key. If a kid from a family like his sees him on the box or in the hauler, the path gets more real for them. The support and pride of his parents back in Frankfort — parents who'd never heard of NASCAR before the Pixar cartoon — are the torque in his drive, pushing him faster toward his goals.
“They definitely want to see me crew chief at some point,” Rahman says. “I want to race in that role while they’re around.”
As he walks through the garage, past the skeletal frames of the team’s hollowed-out GR Supras lined up like gladiators resting up before battle, Rahman is reminded of what it takes to win — proof that the job is never "just engineering."
“The creative part opens your thought process…[and] engineering is figuring out how to solve a problem in the most efficient manner,” he says.
That's true whether he's tuning a virtual setup or talking strategy on a headset with forty laps left.
In the end, Rahman didn't have to wait for Silly Season's music to stop. Just weeks after that Thursday afternoon in Charlotte, Joe Gibbs Racing moved him up to Performance Engineer for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series — the sport's pinnacle and a crucial step on his path to the crew chief seat. At 26, he’s made the leap from Xfinity to Cup while staying with the organization he calls home, sidestepping the difficult choice he thought he’d face.
The promotion puts him one step closer to the crew chief seat he's been chasing since those childhood days playing with Hot Wheels on the kitchen floor. It’s validation of everything his parents sacrificed for, proof that the late nights and relentless travel are leading exactly where he intended. More than that, it’s a signal to the next generation watching from the outside — the kids who don’t see themselves reflected in the garage yet — that the lane is real, and it’s open.
Climbing back into the pavement-gray fastback he calls Pluto, Rahman has fresh proof that focus pays off. In a sport built on fractions of a second and calculated risks, he's ahead of schedule. The crew chief seat is still the destination. But for now, he's exactly where he needs to be — racing full throttle toward it.
“I’ll give up anything else I’m doing to make sure what we’re doing is right," he says. "That’s what I've worked for ... I’m not gonna let anything else get in the way.”
