Motorsports

Dedication to team

Tire changer suffers eye injury, continues work.

By BRANT JAMES
Published March 3, 2007

Joe Piette Jr., rear-tire changer for Ryan Newman's No. 12 Dodge, completed all nine pit stops Sunday at Fontana, Calif., while at least partially blinded in his left eye. He lost a contact and his vision when a lug nut popped off the right rear wheel and struck him in the eye during the first pit stop on Lap 9. He has since regained his vision.

"I'm just glad Newman didn't come over the radio after he left the pits to ask if all the lug nuts were tight. Maybe I'm better at changing tires when I'm blind," Piette said. "I have never had that happen to me. The lug nut didn't cut my eye, but it knocked out the contact lens. It was weird."

A NASCAR official found the lens on pit road, and Piette had it replaced by the next stop, though it didn't help much.

"I can definitely feel that I got hit in the eye, but other than a small bruise at the corner of my eye, you can't see anything. I can see just fine," he said.

Piette estimated he and the front-tire changer tightened and loosened 180 lug nuts on 18 tires during the 250-lap race.

[Last modified March 3, 2007, 01:33:26]