Video: Watch IndyCar tire guy get clobbered by out-of-control car at NOLA (Update)
But Todd Phillips also did everything right to save himself when his Dale Coyne Racing car came sliding through the pit box. He was alert, and he got his feet off the ground before being struck.
"I'm glad I jumped," he told The Indianapolis Star on Tuesday evening. "If I'm planted (on the ground) it gets real ugly real quick."
The 40-year-old native of Franklin, Wis., doubts he'll be ready to return to his car-servicing position for Sunday's race in Long Beach, Calif. (4 p.m., NBCSN), but he figures he'll soon be back on the job – that means again standing in the middle of pit road directing his car to its box.
Phillips remembers almost everything about the incident that occurred on Lap 35. He knew series rookies would be pitting nose to tail, and he was focused on Gabby Chaves of Bryan Herta Autosport coming first. Phillips watched Chaves go by, then turned his attention to his own car, driven by Francesco Dracone.
Dracone drove through the standing water a few feet from their pit box, causing a hydroplane effect that led to losing control. As the car slid sideways, Phillips took two steps toward the pit wall in an effort to outrun the car, then jumped when time was up.
Having his feet on the ground likely would have meant getting run over.
"At the end of the day I'm a very lucky boy," he said.
Phillips has gone over the wall to change tires since joining Champ Car in 1998. Most of his experience was with Newman Haas Racing, long one of the most experienced and successful race teams in the U.S.
Phillips, who had never been hit by a race car before, is the crew chief of Dracone's car, and his job in pit stops is to wave the driver into the box. Phillips and the team's fueler were the only two vulnerable on that stop because it was a fuel-only stop. Also fortunate was the fact Dracone got the car stopped before it slid into the Chaves pit.
The contact with Phillips flipped him, and he landed with his head wedged against the pit wall. He wasn't sure how to react when rescuers got to him because "it was such an awkward position to be in."
"You would never lie like that," he said.
Wearing a helmet also kept Phillips from a head injury. He noted that it wasn't that long ago that tire changers complained about the series mandate to wear them.
"There's not a single guy who would go out without them now," he said.
Phillips said the leg cut is deep enough that the six stitches need to remain until at least the weekend. The leg is swollen, too. The athleticism required to change tires is the biggest reason why he'll probably be on the safe side of the pit wall this weekend.
Phillips hopes to return to action by the time IndyCar rolls into Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala., for the April 26 race. Fear won't hold him back.
"It's part of it," he said of literally being in the middle of the action. "But it's crazy.
"Most of us (tire changers) want to be over the wall. I've always said I wouldn't want to (work a race) if I couldn't go over the wall. It's the favorite part." Indy Star
04/13/15 Dale Coyne Racing Chief mechanic Todd Phillips is a very lucky guy, only 6 stitches required in his leg.