Josh Yost was the jackman for the No. 31 team before an injury at Talladega in may ended his season. Credit: Courtesy of RCR photo

Yost still dealing with effects of pit road mishap

About once a year in the Nextel Cup Series, a pit accident occurs that is so severe that it knocks out the injured crew member the entire season -- if not his career.

This is 2005, and at Talladega, it was Josh Yost's turn.

An accident on pit road involving major injury doesn't happen often. That is why such occurrences are not cause for great alarm in the media. That is because they are isolated.

Josh Yost Credit: Courtesy of RCR photo

It's May 1, 2005. Lap 117 of the Aaron's 499 at Talladega. And Josh Yost's life is about to change.

It was just a routine four-tire stop. Yost, a seven-year veteran of NASCAR's pit road wars, is about to drop his 37-pound jack to service Jeff Burton's No. 31 Chevrolet.

As Yost lifts up the right side of the 3,500-pound car, Rusty Wallace's Dodge is heading to pit road. As Wallace goes by Burton's pit, the left-front of Wallace's car smashes into Yost's ankle, breaking it.

That isn't the bad part.

The aluminum side skirt of Wallace's car is like a razor blade, and it slices through Yost's tendons and ligaments with a surgeon's precision. Chunks of rubber fly into the open wound.

"I remember being really, really mad," says Yost. "I couldn't walk. So when I fell down, I couldn't get up."

Yost, 28, crawls to the rear of his pit stall and pulls himself up by Burton's spoiler. He feels no pain, but he knows the injury is bad.

"They laid me down and cut my firesuit off and the shoe and the sock," says Yost. "As soon as they cut the sock off, the foot just fell over. It was just hanging by skin."

Yost knows right away that he probably is out for the year.

"I was so pissed off because I knew I'd be out, I was done," says Yost.

Two surgeries await. One was performed two days after the accident, the other three days after that. He is confined to a wheelchair for two months. During that time, Burton pays to have a personal trainer help Yost learn to walk again.

Yost actually considers himself lucky. He worked for Richard Childress Racing as a mechanic during the week, so he was eligible to receive worker's compensation. The bad thing is that Yost lost a lot of his personal income, and he sold one of his two houses when he couldn't physically maintain the property.

Many of the 250 over-the-wall crew members do not work full-time for the team that employs them on Sundays.

Team members supplement their often-modest shop wages by going over the wall, and some do it twice a week for twice the risk. Bonuses frequently are doled out for meeting certain guidelines on pit road, but if one gets hurt, that income is gone, and it's all but impossible to replace.

"If you're not covered by a team that you work for on a full-time basis, you're out there gambling [on pit road]," says Yost. "If you work for UPS and you get hit, they are not going to cover you. I don't know what those guys would do."

Yost's injury is isolated to his right ankle, but the severity of it is extensive. The entire area around the ankle is numb, and even now, he walks with a pronounced limp.

"I have got a whole lot of nerve damage where that nerve was ripped out," says Yost. "There is nothing I can do about it. The nerve is gone."

In 2000, Joe Gibbs Racing tire changer Mike Lingerfelt was hit on pit road. He fractured his femur -- a tough bone to crack -- but still managed to return to action later that year. After extensive rehab, Lingerfelt continues to change tires. Now, he works for Robert Yates Racing with a 12-inch titanium rod implanted in the femur.

In 2001, Robert Yates Racing tire changer Bobby Burrell suffered a frightening head injury when he hit the pit road wall during an accident at Homestead. That injury prompted NASCAR to mandate helmets on pit road.

Yost isn't sure he will ever jack a car again. Amazingly, he still wants to do it. He misses the action. He is unable to work in the shop because the concrete floors in the shop create a tremendous pounding on healthy ankles, much less ones that are surgically repaired.

"They don't want me in the shop. Everyone is up walking around and it is kind of hard," says Yost. "If it was an arm injury, or something like that, yeah, but you walk everywhere you go. If I step and trip and fall on this ankle, they would have to do surgery and it would tear stuff loose. If I fall again I may sprain it. I have to be patient."

Yost hopes to be Burton's jackman when the 2006 Daytona 500 rolls around, but the odds are daunting. Yost, like most jackmen, is a stocky man. Jackmen place tremendous strain on their lower bodies, so Yost will have to be close to 100 percent.

"It's not like I weigh 110 pounds. I am 220," says Yost. "It takes a lot of stress and shock, and I have got to get over that soreness to be able to push it and go on and be without a limp.

"I am going to try to be [at Daytona] but there is no guarantee. I could go out there next week and have another setback. I have not picked up a jack since May."

Yost's ankle resembles a baseball with purple stitching, but his wounds also were psychological. It is hard for him to go from working seven days a week to sitting at home with his ankle propped up. He misses his friends at the shop, and crew chief Kevin Hamlin knows it, so Hamlin has someone at the shop drive to Yost's home once a week to get him out of the living room.

"Hamlin would let one person come up a week and take me out to lunch," says Yost. "I live about 30 minutes [away] so someone would be late going back. That would help me out a lot. That was really cool.

"I stayed busy with the therapy but I still get way bored sitting at the house. I try to stop by the shop because it's on the way and stop in the gym and see everybody but I am definitely ready to get back."