From his crouched position on pit wall, Dana Worthing, the front tire changer on the No. 19 NASCAR Nextel Cup car of Jeremy Mayfield, prepares to leap into action.

As Mayfield’s Dodge slides to a stop, Worthing utilizes his high-powered air wrench to remove the five lug nuts on the right front wheel. He reverses his air wrench, slamming on five lug nuts that are glued onto the new tire and wheel placed on the hub by his tire carrier.

He then rapidly moves across the front of the car and attacks the five lug nuts on the left front wheel and, after a new tire and rim are placed on the hub, he tightens the five nuts glued into place on that wheel. It takes longer to read about this pit stop than it took the Howland native and his fellow Mountain Dew crew members to perform it.

A typical stop requires as little as 13.5 seconds for this highly skilled and trained crew of the Evernham Motorsports team. It is no accident that the members of a Nextel Cup pit crew can perform their duties in the top motorsports tour in America with such precision and speed.

The No. 19 pit crew is one of the reasons that driver Jeremy Mayfield was able to vault from 14th place to ninth in NASCAR’s Chase for the Nextel Cup. Mayfield’s win at the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday was in part made possible by the lightning-quick work of his crew.

Worthing’s job in America’s premier motorsports series as a vital member of a top team is that of one man following his dream to reach the top.

A 1987 Penobscot Valley High School graduate, Worthing got his start in Mr. Appleby’s automotive mechanics shop at Region 3 in Lincoln.

“I learned a great deal of automotive basics from Mr. Appleby,” said Worthing. “I am sure he would be proud of me now!”

After graduation, Worthing went to work at a Houlton truck stop. In 1994 he made his racing debut as the crew chief for Jim McCordic of Houlton, who raced at Spud Speedway in Caribou in the Pro 4 series. This partnership culminated in a track championship in 1996. Crewmembers Jason Schools and Michelle McCordic made up the rest of that winning Aroostook County team.

“When Dana started with this team, he was very limited in his knowledge of racing,” driver-owner McCordic said. “He was a fast learner who was willing to learn and stubborn enough to keep at it until he got it right.”

Worthing moved to central Maine to pursue a career as a carpenter, a millwright in Union No. 1996. He obtained journeyman status and helped build the four-turbine Jay plant, an 18-month project.

During this time, he became the crew chief for Brian Sweatt’s Charger class car at Unity Raceway, where the team finished third overall in 2000 and second in 2001.

“That was fun!” chuckled Worthing about the effort put forth by the team. “I learned a lot.”

After reading an article in the November 2001 “Speedway Illustrated” magazine about the 5-Off-5-On Pit Crew Training Center in Mooresville, N.C., Worthing decided to make his move south. He and several classmates leased a condo on Lake Norman near the heart of stock car country. After finishing the five-week, intensive training, the determined young man continued training in preparation for that big break that he was confident would materialize.

That break came when he landed a job as the gas man for Chase Montgomery at the ARCA race at Daytona, Fla., in February 2002. He later became a tire carrier for the team.

“I wanted to be a tire changer, but at that time my skills were not quite good enough,” he said. “I have a never-give-up attitude and, for me, failure was not an option.”

Worthing became the front tire changer for Evernham Motorsports this season after a couple of years honing his skills in the junior circuits of NASCAR.

What does it entail to remain at the top of the game as a Nextel Cup over-the-wall crewman? On the Monday following a NASCAR race, Worthing reports to the Statesville, N.C., shop for work as a finish fabricator. The next 11/2 hours are spent doing tire-changer drills under the direction of pit crew trainer Greg Miller and personal physical trainer Ben Cook.

Tuesday is film day, when the pit crew will do an in-depth review of the previous race performance during pit stops. Every move is carefully choreographed. Any move that can be modified to shave a fraction of a second will be practiced so that it becomes ingrained in each crewman. This is necessary because members of the crew must perform their job under loud and sometimes dangerous conditions. The session finishes with a workout with weights in the team’s gym.

“We were quite happy with the 13.5-second stops in practice today,” said Worthy.

Wednesday’s 4 p.m. workout begins with dynamic warm-ups and stretches in preparation for the 11/2-hour session. A typical part of practice will include hitting the wheel studs perfectly with the impact wrench 100 times in a row without any misses. Any misses and they must start all over again until the tire changer hits all 100 perfectly.

Another task practiced will be the 5 offs and 5 ons where the tire changer will remove five lug nuts as fast as possible, and then reinstall five lug nuts. This is to simulate what might happen if a glued-on lug nut were to become dislodged before the tire change is complete.

The Wednesday practice concludes outside the team shops where the crew will push a heavily loaded sled around a nearby field regardless of weather conditions. Crab walks then follow the sled run as well as inchworm walks that enhance flexibility and strength.

Several of the crew leave on Thursday for the weekend race. The crew members still at the shop will continue to practice pit stops.

Friday is usually a half day; however, the workout on that day consists of a one-hour “fun run” at 10:30 a.m. After the busy week, Worthing has Saturday off if the race is Sunday.

An early Sunday morning plane flight gets the crew to the track in time to set up the pit area and prepare the six-to-11 sets of tires for the upcoming race. Last-minute details will be covered at the team meeting around noon with the race usually following shortly after.

“Unless we finish in the top five, we will tear down the pits and pack all the equipment into the transporter,” Worthing said of the post-race work. “We will then ride to the airport and fly a chartered plane back to Charlotte. The next day we will start all over again.”

“I think it is quite interesting that I live 19 miles from the Evernham Motorsports shop because the car number is also number 19. My initials are DEW and I work for the Dew Crew, the sponsor of the Jeremy Mayfield racer.”

Worthing is the son of Sylvia Worthing from Howland. His dad William is deceased.