IMS boom truck crew: No good is waiting for them

The truck sits inside of Turn 1, in the shadow of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, with its red paint pristine and yellow bed worn down.

If every driver has his or her way, the 19-ton behemoth won't move. For it to do otherwise means one of them is in trouble. It means there's been a crash, a fire or some type of damage that inhibits them from cruising off the track. That's when the part-time crew who run the boom truck — the transport responsible for moving damaged cars — speed onto the oval.

They're informed of little but always understand this: No good is waiting for them.

"We're kind of the last resort," Dave Reynolds said. "The last people to know."

Lately they are also the people seen too much. On Tuesday, they were called in to pick up Simona De Silvestro's car after it caught fire. On Wednesday, dangerous crashes involving Helio Castroneves and Pippa Mann brought them onto the track. They nearly made it through Thursday without any action until Josef Newgarden flipped in Turn 1 and skidded down the track 40 minutes before practice ended.

The boom truck duties are split up between eight people who work in teams of two or three. Reynolds, 69, currently operates the crane on the truck. There are six levers on either side of the crane he'll run to depending on where the truck fits on the track. He's worked at IMS for eight years but the Brownstown native has been an IndyCar addict for much longer. He'd come to the track sometimes with friends, mostly by himself, and plop down outside of Turn 4 or Turn 1. From 1965-1973 he was always there for the Indianapolis 500.

Reynolds never interacts with the drivers. They're usually gone by the time the boom truck arrives. Though he imagines what it'd be like if he had to.

"I think they view us with mixed feelings," Reynolds said. "We really are very careful not to do any more damage to the car than what they've had done. We get them off the track as quickly as they can and get them to the garage so they can start putting them back together."

And they do get the car off the track fast.

"We've stopped and had a car loaded in less than a minute," said Mark Hatfield, who drives the truck.

Hatfield, 55, has worked at IMS for 22 years. The Ohioan grew up on go-karts north of Cincinnati. He watched the 500 every year. He gave up racing early in his life; he couldn't give up life at the track.

When a friend got him a tryout for the wrecker crew at IMS, he knew he wouldn't fail.

"They see what kind of knowledge you have," Hatfield said. "People go out on the racetrack and freeze up, especially with the cars coming around. There's so much mass chaos."

Reynolds isn't too shy to admit he froze up his first time on the track.

He has trouble recalling what he was doing. After sitting in Turn 1 for most of his life he was suddenly shooting out of it. Driving towards a disaster.

"The adrenaline was so high that it didn't even occur what we were doing until it was all over," Reyonlds said. "I was l like, 'Damn, what a rush.' "

Dave Akers, 50, anchors the crew. He grew up in Speedway, just beyond the IMS parking lots and his demeanor hardly changes when talking about the track. After 21 years cleaning up wrecks, there's not much to discuss. The car crashes, Akers gets the call and gets to work.

He didn't flinch when Castroneves flipped or Mann spun. He just sets out to help them.

"It's calm," Akers said. "Not any real big deal."

In fact this is the deal. IndyCar drivers crash. When you're jockeying for position and fighting for speed it's inevitable. Meaning faces like those of Reynolds, Hatfield and Akers can become more commonplace on the track than many would like.

And though teams may cringe at the sight of them, the boom truck crew is just looking to assist them when they need it most.

"If you're not pushing the edge to the point where now and then you lose it you're not going to win," Reynolds said. "We're there to catch them."

Follow Star reporter Blake Schuster on Twitter: @Schustee.