Bryan Backus had no reason to suspect this pit stop was going to be any different than usual.
That was until he was struck by a crashing stock car while trying to service the No. 19 car during last weekend’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
Backus was completing routine duties as rear changer on Brent Crews’ No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota when the field came to pit road for the first time on Lap 49. Just as he arrived at the right-rear wheel of Crews’ car, so, too, did the careening No. 87 Chevrolet of Nick Sanchez, one of numerous cars involved in a chain-reaction crash at the front end of pit road on Sept. 12.
“Get one lug nut in, and next thing you know, I’m laying over top of the jack,” Backus told NASCAR.com Thursday evening at Bristol Motor Speedway. “Didn’t really know what happened at first, but luckily, nobody on the team was hurt, and our race car got the worst of it.”
— NASCAR.com —