Crewman Backus reflects on Gateway pit crash: ‘A lot closer than it needed to be’

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- 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." MORE: See narrow Gateway escape | Bristol schedule Rajah Caruth's No. 88 Chevrolet spun sideways, the left-rear of his race car striking the incoming left-rear tire that carrier Brad Donaghy was holding. That bumped the tire free from Donaghy's hands. "If that was even a foot closer to Brad, he'd have been 40 yards down pit road," Backus said. Backus simultaneously found Sanchez sliding into his path -- first into the right-rear corner of Crews' car and then directly into Backus' left side. "I've been hit before, and it's hurt a lot worse, but this was the closest it's come to being extremely serious," Backus said. The impact knocked the No. 19 Toyota off the jack and flung Backus toward the front of the vehicle, laying him over the jack. "Once Matt picked me up off his jack, I was kind of assessing, like, am I really hurt? Does it just hurt a little bit? What's going on?" Backus said. "And I looked over and, like, the whole quarter panel was crushed in. So like, if I was a foot to my left, or if our car parked a foot back, it was like, wow. And then obviously watching the overhead afterwards, it looks a lot closer than it needed to be." [caption id="attachment_526166" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]Amy Kontras | Getty Images[/caption] Many factors played into the fact that Backus, Donaghy, jackman Matt Wilps, front changer Dustin Necaise and fueler Luke Deal all walked away relatively unscathed. One was luck. Another key, though, was preparation, thanks in part to pit coach Terry Spalding. Because O'Reilly pit stalls are picked mid-week based on the prior race's qualifying results, the No. 19 team knew Crews would likely be entering his stall by driving around the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and pitting at angle. Backus knew the challenge that would come with that, so he opted to seek extra practice before flying to Gateway. "We knew we were coming around all day, so I went in on Thursday, and Terry was there, so it was just me and Terry," Backus said. "We were just doing approaches all day -- short, angled in, coming around. So in that aspect, it got me extremely prepared for coming around. I mean, obviously, if that doesn't happen (and) I don't do that preparation, possibly, I'm not as good at getting to the car that day, so I would have met the 87 in that back bumper and just not even got to the tire." MORE: O'Reilly Series standings | Full 2026 schedule After the incident, there was no hesitation to continue pitting the rest of the night. While their adrenaline and shock were sky high, another pit stop meant another opportunity to put that incident behind them. "That's our job. That's kind of what we have to do," Backus said. "I thought about it a little bit. There was a time the caution came out, and we were on the wall, and I was ready to do another stop. I just wanted to get it out of the way, and then obviously we ended up not coming down because everybody stayed out. I was a little upset -- I guess not mad upset, but I was anxious to get the next stop out of the way. And then when we did get the next stop, obviously we're still coming around the 17, so running out there again, same spot, and then in my head I'm like, 'Wow, I'm actually out past the orange box. I'm three, four feet in pit road to come around.' But no, I didn't think about it a lot because if you do, you're not going to be thinking about doing your job." Going through such a close encounter with danger also builds unity among teammates. From Spalding to Backus to Wilps and Donaghy, a band of crewmen instantly became that much closer. "It definitely brings us together more because I mean we're already a really close-knit group as it is," Backus said. "I love the team I'm on that we have on and off the pit pad. It's a great team, but just being in that moment and everything happening, and then obviously Matt's picking me up and then Brad rolls over the front of the car. The first thing he said to me is like, 'When I got up, the first thing I had to go in my head was, I got to go check on Backs.' It just shows you how much each one of your team has actually cared about you, not just the performance aspect but in life." The No. 19 team is the same unit that pitted the No. 1 Tricon Garage Toyota for Nick Leitz in Thursday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Bristol. The group will get back to action in Friday's Food City 300, the second race of the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).