Tow truck drivers have valuable, thankless job

CONCORD, N.C. -- When a wreck occurs during a NASCAR race, the guy no driver and fabricator want to see is the tow truck driver.

But somebody has to do the job.

	Tow trucks are an unwanted, but necessary part of NASCAR. Credit: Autostock

That's where guys like Mac McKinney and Dave Eckert of Dover, Del. come into the picture. Working just a few races a year, namely at Dover International Speedway and sometimes Pocono Raceway, they man the flatbed rollbacks and tow trucks.

Called upon when needed, they stand in wait during races until a caution flag comes out. Once the medical teams get there and assess the situation and make sure the driver is safe, then the tow truck guys might get radioed on the track to pick up a car.

"We have four tow trucks here with one sitting in each turn," said McKinney, owner of his own towing service for the past eight years. "When we get to the accident scene, we then determine if we want to pick the car up from the front or back.

"If it's beyond the tow truck, then we bring in a rollback. If that's the case, I can guarantee you it's a safe bet that car won't be coming back out onto the track."

The red and blue uniforms they wear have the name AATAC on the front. It is the builder of the tow trucks and the official tow truck of NASCAR. The trucks are supplied by AATAC but the drivers and assistants are usually local help that has gone through training before working the races.

For Dover's one-mile, high-banked oval there are four wreckers and two rollbacks assigned to the race. There are four people assigned to each truck.

The driver always stays behind the wheel to make any adjustments when approaching the wrecked car. Two others will work on the car while the fourth member watches the crew's back as the cars go by under caution.

"NASCAR will specifically call for a wrecker or a tow truck," McKinney said. "We don't move until called upon to go out on the track. Hopefully, the firemen have already taken a look at everything and they kind of guide us where we need to hook the car up.

	When a car gets put on a rollback, it likely won't return to the racetrack. Credit: Autostock

"Once we recover the vehicle, we either take it to the garage area or to an impound area. Guys don't like to see us come back with that car -- but we understand that."

The crew understands that drivers get upset when they wreck and crew members want to get at the car right away to fix it.

"The biggest thing I see is when we pull into the pit area with the car," Eckert said. "You have to deal with the pit crew because they swarm all over the car before you even get a chance to park.

"They're trying to assess the damage to get their driver back out on the track. We'll help them get the car in the garage stall or at least on jack stands so they can wheel it onto the hauler."

Tow trucks weigh between 12 and 16,000 pounds and the rollbacks are about 16,000 pounds. Sometimes, the crew's work goes beyond just the race itself.

"One time, a Busch car hit the crossover gate on the Start/Finish Line here," Eckert said. "Mac and I had to stay an extra two hours just to help get it working. That thing was mangled.

"We had a loader in there to restrain it, then we had to cut some of it and straighten it out so it could be used for the Winston Cup race the next day."

So, what's the pay for this hazardous duty?

"We're volunteers," McKinney said. "Everyone working a tow truck or rollback you see in here is a volunteer for the Busch and Winston Cup races this weekend. I'm not sure if it's like that at all tracks, but it is here.

"We're the last of a dying breed."