Several NASCAR crew members pitched in Friday to help a passing motorist who had been in a traffic accident in downtown Chicago. The crew members repaired the vehicle and got it running again after a fender bender that occurred across from where race teams had been unloading and setting up for this weekend's inaugural race on the Chicago Street Course in Grant Park. The makeshift roadside assistance crew was comprised of members of Kaulig Racing and Legacy Motor Club's teams.
Friday saw teams park their haulers and begin to set up along one side of S Dusable Lake Shore Drive, with the other half remaining open for normal traffic before race weekend. But as teams got to work, two unfortunate motorists would end up colliding in traffic. Neither driver was hurt, but the front bumper and left side of one of the cars suffered significant damage.
Luckily, the accident occurred just across from droves of highly-skilled mechanics and state of the art automotive equipment, and several crew members from Kaulig and Legacy Motor Club's teams soon pitched in to help.
Update: Some of our guys and some @LegacyMotorclub guys are helping fix it up! https://t.co/y9nMmfLi5P pic.twitter.com/2JhljUvKpv
— Kaulig Racing (@KauligRacing) June 30, 2023
Damon Lopez, the hauler driver for Kaulig's No. 31 team, told NASCAR.com that crew members removed the car's front bumper, which was hanging off the right side, by unhooking the wiring harness and then using a screwdriver. They then proceeded to reattach the front bumper, allowing the motorist to drive away. Crew members involved in the repair included David Cropps, Carl Garcia and Mike Usray.
Normally confined to the controlled environment of a racetrack's garage area, the makeshift repair work in response to a traffic accident illustrated the new and decidedly urban environment that NASCAR's crews now inhabit in Chicago's Grant Park area. And for one lucky motorist, stock car racing's much ballyhooed foray into street course racing came just in time to save their day.
