Teams prepare 'war wagons' for crisis management
By Stock Car Racing Staff
January 10, 2002
3:26 PM EST (2026 GMT)
When it comes to pit road, action centers around the "war wagons" -- those mobile tool chests that crewmen lug around packed with everything they'll need for fast pit stops or quick repairs.
These war wagons are huge, measuring over six-feet long, three-feet wide and almost six-feet tall. That's a lot of storage. So, what do crewmen put in those things? Stock Car Racing asked Daniel Johnson, who works at Irvan-Smith Inc., a company in Concord, N.C., that supplies pit equipment such as war wagons, fuel and tire carts and metal fabricating equipment.
Johnson explains how war wagons and their contents work.
"There are tools you use right from the moment you get to the track," he says. "There are tools you use just for the race. And tools you use if there is a wreck and you need to fix the car."
In the sequence of a race weekend, certain procedures happen in a defined order. The same holds true for sets of tools.
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War wagons provide teams with plenty of storage space for the items they may need to get their car back into a race.
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"Going through inspection, you take a couple of 7/16" wrenches and a half-inch socket with a speed handle and a line wrench to take the fuel line and carburetor off," says Johnson. Prior to qualifying and racing, he says, a team may put its car on jack stands and use air gauges. They use hand tools such as Allen wrenches and open-end wrenches for adjusting the sway bar, and a torque wrench to set the lug nuts.
When the garage is emptied and the green flag drops, another set of tools comes out of the wagon.
"For racing you use your best jack, the air guns and ½" ratchets and long extensions for chassis changes. Also the catch-can is used for racing only," Johnson says.
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The war wagons on pit road.
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Johnson says the most important pieces of equipment in a war wagon include jack stands, tire gauges, hydraulic jacks, high-speed air guns, nitrogen bottles, open-end and box wrenches, ratchets, extensions and screwdrivers, stopwatches, a tire pyrometer, tire markers and a torque wrench.
There are many secondary tools that are part of any war wagon including an electric reciprocating saw for cutting away sheet metal from a wreck, an extension cord to power up the war wagon and a durometer for checking tire rubber hardness. You'll also find a timing light for checking and adjusting the timing of the motor; line wrenches specifically designed for stainless steel, braided hose fittings containing oil, fuel and water; and a catch-can for fuel overflow during pit stops.
Teams will attach a clock and a schedule of events at the track. They'll stuff other shelves with radios and gloves for the crew, a pop rivet gun, tin snips, safety wire and safety wire pliers, gears, drain pans and scale sets.
When it comes to parts and supplies, the wagon is home to extra lug nuts, adhesive for gluing lug nuts to wheels, carburetor parts, an assortment of jets, floats and filters, spark plugs, air filter elements, oil and oil filters, degreaser, gear lube, brake cleaner, brake fluid, window cleaner and silicone sealer.
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Teams pack devices such as air-pressure gauges and tire pyrometers to check how equipment is performing during a race, and heavy-duty tools they may need for quick repairs.
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Then there's the "big-boy toys." These are items the top NASCAR teams have on top of their wagons -- computers for fuel calculations including scales for weighing semi-empty dump cans, computers for tapping into NASCAR scoring and a satellite dish for live TV coverage of the race so they know more of what's going on.
Whew! That's a bunch of tools. If you're wondering what these things weigh, listen to Johnson.
"We've heard stories about some of those things weighing 3,400 pounds -- that's the same as the race car!"
TOP TOOLS
Here are some of the most important tools found in a war wagon
Jack stands -- Four each.
Tire gauges -- Two each.
Hydraulic jacks -- Two each. One is used for working in the garage and the other for quick pit action.
High-speed air guns -- Two or three each (two for pit stops and one for backup), nitrogen bottles (up to three) and a regulator and air hose for each bottle.
Open end and box wrenches, ratchets, extensions and screwdrivers.
Stopwatches -- Three each.
Pyrometer for measuring tire temperatures.
Tire markers, for marking sizes and pressures on tires.
Torque wrench for uniformly tightening wheel lug nuts.
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