Expert: Stooge - 11/12/2008

Question
Question I've always had but never had the opportunity to ask anyone who might know.....
During pit stops where do all the loose lug nuts go?? Sometimes you see them flying around so my thinking is, with a potential for some 840 loose lug nuts lying all over pit road along with 43 cars burning rubber out of the pits, seems that lug nuts would be flying around like bullets on the front line not to mention damage to tires sooooooooo, (whew!)  Whats the deal??
Thanks for helpful knowledge, inquiring minds wanna' know!

Answer
Yes, the lugnuts go flying everywhere during a pitstop. Yes occasionally they will get thrown by a tire as a car leaves pit road. As far as I know the "no sharp edges" keeps tires from being cut and the flying lugnuts, I guess, would have to be considered a hazard of the job. I don't recall ever being hit by one. Crew members will clean them up after the pit stops (something you don't see, not very exciting).