Keystone native earning a living as member of IndyCar teamNEWTON — When Raphael Matos pops the clutch on pit road, he’s relying on the skills of Josh Junge that his right rear tire stays firmly attached, propelling him down pit road and back into the racing action.

For Junge, a Keystone, Iowa, native, it all happened by accident one night in 1998. He was attending Kirkwood Community College and working a full-time job at JE Adams at night.

As he drove home from school one afternoon from Kirkwood, he noticed a USAC Silver Crown car sitting outside of the Cahill Racing. Since he knew Larry Cahill’s nephew, Kevin Hirtle, Junge pulled in for a few minutes.

He learned Cahill was taking Springfield, Ill., USAC racer Donnie Beechler to the Indianapolis 500 and the Indy Racing League. Enthralled by the operation, Junge told them if they needed help to give him a call, thinking he could help out at the shop on the weekends.

“When I got home from work that night there was a message on my answering machine from Larry saying, ‘Hey, we would like you to come to Indianapolis with us on Monday,’” said Junge, who was 18 years old at time.

He considered it that weekend, talking with his father and his counselor at Kirkwood, learning he could take some early exams and return to classes later. At work, they told him he’d be a fool not to do it. They’d rehire him on request if it didn’t work out.

“A day and a half later, my bag was packed and I was in the truck on the way to Indy,” said Junge. “I have been there ever since.”

Junge raced Modifieds for three years before getting the call to Indianapolis and following in his father’s tracks. While he never won any races, the patriarch Jody Junge won many B-Mod races at the Benton County Speedway, finishing high in points for a few years.

When he raced, Junge was young — just 16 years old — and performed many of the tasks on the race car himself. His equipment was inferior to that of many of his competitors.

“I really didn’t know much of what I was doing, but I liked to pretend that I did,” said Junge. “And, the thing ran around the track.”

Today, Junge doesn’t have much time from March to October for anything other than his responsibilities with the team.

Junge doesn’t return often to Benton County and admits to missing his family. He visits at Christmas and Thanksgiving.

“I try to in the summer time and it just never works,” said Junge.

During the IndyCar stop at Iowa Speedway, his family came to him. His aunt and uncle brought a camper and they had a barbecue.

“I got to see the grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles and parents,” said Junge.

Thus far, Junge’s greatest accomplishment was winning his first race as a chief mechanic. That happened at Michigan International Speedway in 2005.

“It came together really fast running a third car,” said Junge. “We rolled in and sat on the pole and kind of cruised all weekend. It was nice and relaxed and we ended up winning the race by a ton.”

The biggest disappointment? Any race they don’t win.

“This whole deal is a big roller coaster,” said Junge. “You are going to have ups and downs. You work as hard as you can to try and stay up on top of the roller coaster as much as possible, but you have down years. Every team up and down this pit lane has had up and down years. It is just a matter of where you are at in the cycle of your roller coaster.”

In the past decade, Junge’s worked with several drivers — Scott Goodyear, Max Papis, Robby Gordon, Eddie Cheever, Robby Unser, and, of course, Donnie Beechler.

“The list goes on,” said Junge.

Pit crews make hundreds of stops with their car and driver, changing tires and dropping in fuel in mere seconds. When something goes wrong, as did on Matos’ second stop at Iowa Speedway when an air tank leaked and the air jack and three impact wrenches failed to operate properly, Junge replays it over and over in his mind.

“Some people handle it with disappointment and frustration but at the end of the day our job is the same even though a mistake is made,” said Junge.

In Junge’s 12 years as a team member, he’s seen the IRL IndyCar Series grow from a fledgling racing league embroiled in a bitter dispute with CART to the reunification and an organization many believed poised today to grow into the future. He’s uncertain he would have had the same opportunity without the Indy Racing League.

“I think that without Cahill Racing, I would not have had a shot of coming and doing this,” said Junge. “I probably would never have thought about doing something like this. If it hadn’t had been for that day, I am 90 percent sure that I wouldn’t have been here.

With the reunification a few years ago, half as many jobs exist as did a decade ago. Many crew members up and down pit road are older, said Junge, and ultimately they will begin to retire.

“The work is pretty intense and there are a lot of people that are ready to get out of it,” said Junge. “At that time, I hope they do bring in a bunch of young kids. It would give them an opportunity to even go farther than what we have.”

When working with Cheever Racing, Junge had the opportunity to drive an IndyCar. A car had been prepared so that all of sponsor Red Bull’s athletes could take a turn behind the wheel. Of course, someone needed to check out the flat half-mile track on the Las Vegas drag strip parking lot the day before.

“It was like nothing you have ever experienced before,” said Junge.

It was a long way from the dirt modified he wheeled around the quarter-mile dirt of Benton County Speedway. He’d love to race again, but enough time just doesn’t exist.

But, if Junge ever routinely has weekends off, there will be a modified sitting in his garage.

“I will go out every Saturday or Sunday night and play in the dirt a little bit,” said Junge.