NASCAR said it will send representatives to Gateway to review pit-road safety after a pileup at WWT Raceway that briefly blocked the entire pit lane and put several crew members in immediate danger, though no one was hurt.
The stack-up began when cars spun toward crews working on the right side of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing entry. The spinning No. 88 of Rajah Caruth clipped jackman Matt Wilps, and Nick Sanchez’s car then slammed into the rear of the JGR machine, creating a chain reaction that stopped pit-road traffic and forced a red flag.
Joe Gibbs Racing rear-tire changer Bryan Backus was kneeling at the right-rear tire of the No. 19 when the cars closed in. He described finding himself lying over the jack in a moment he called surreal and instantaneous. "When it happened, I had no idea. Going out like a normal stop coming, around the 17 [Corey Day]. And the next thing you know, I'm laying over top of the jack. It was just --it happened so fast. There was no warning from anybody," Backus said.
Backus later accepted a damaged panel from Sanchez and crew chief Jody Measamer, handed to him during the pre-race show at Bristol Motor Speedway. "I figured I put a dent in it, so I might want to get something there," he said, noting that repeated viewings of race film made how close the call had been increasingly clear.
Backus also explained how crews return to duty after such scares, pointing to training and repetition as the tools that keep team members focused under pressure. "I mean, obviously, it's definitely a tough thing to do. But if you're thinking of anything else other than your job, you're not going to be able to do your job correctly. So it's just something that we've trained (for), something that we've been practicing and getting used to and repetition, so you just know what's coming next and not thinking about the other stuff that potentially could happen," he said.
NASCAR’s planned review will examine how pit road can be made safer at the Illinois track. The incident, and the damaged panel now in Backus’s garage, places pit-road procedures and crew protection under renewed attention ahead of upcoming events. Representatives will determine whether changes to layout, protocol, or oversight are warranted after their inspection at Gateway.