LIVE OAK, Fla. — A pair of Suwannee County Fire Rescue firefighters will have an up-close look at the Coke Zero 400 this weekend in Daytona.

In addition to their duties with SCFR, Adam McCook and Sam Schey also work on the race weekend crews at Daytona International Speedway, an experience that is hard to describe Schey said.

“I love my job,” said Schey, who began working for the International Speedway Corporation in 2004 and has worked his way from the outside of the track to now serving on a track truck. “I love what I do. I love working with NASCAR. I love working with Daytona Speedway. There’s a thrill there that these cars are going by you at 200-plus miles per hour. You’re in a protective area but once you’re out there on that track, it’s just to watch those cars go by and they are still doing 70 to 80 miles per hour, and to feel the rumble. If you’re down off that banking and you look up and that car’s going by you, there’s an adrenaline rush there.

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“I love my job. I love what I do. I love working with NASCAR. I love working with Daytona Speedway. There’s a thrill there that these cars are going by you at 200-plus miles per hour.”

— Sam Schey

“It’s just something you have to feel for yourself, I guess. It’s hard to explain.”

On one of the eight track trucks that covers the 2.5-mile tri-oval, Schey responds to the inevitable wrecks that come with cars racing at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour.

McCook’s vantage point is a bit different during the race. He works on pit road, helping to extinguish any fires that may occur during pit stops.

“When the cars are pitting, we have a fire extinguisher and stuff and are basically right next to the fuel man in case anything happens during a pit stop around the fuel area, we can extinguish the fire,” said McCook, who began working at the track for the 2007 Daytona 500. “We also have to be on watch for any type of fires on pit road because of the amount of people and the amount of fuel that’s on pit road.

“It’s Daytona so something wild is always going to happen. Anything and everything will happen there.”

Both McCook and Schey recalled the 2012 incident when Juan Pablo Montoya hit a jet dryer causing an explosion as an incident they had to help on. They also had to assist in 2013 and 2015 when cars went into the grandstand after a wreck.

“But any big accident like that, they pull everybody,” Schey said about the 2015 crash that sent Austin Dillon airborne and putting spectators in danger. “When you get a big incident like when (Dillon) went up in the fence, they pulled everybody. They pulled people from the outside.

“We all do separate jobs but we’re all one big team.”

McCook added: “We went and assisted once they got everything somewhat secure. We assisted and checked out the spectators and stuff like that. There wasn’t many injuries but you treated it like a mass casualty incident, so we had to check out people and make sure they were OK. We’re there for the fans, ultimately.”

And while they are there to work, both McCook and Schey are fans too.

“It’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve been able to do,” McCook said, adding he went to the races with his family growing up. “I like going down there. I’m a fan of the sport.”

Schey has a family history with racing with a great-grandfather that raced Indy cars, grandfathers that raced in addition to brothers and cousins that have raced stock cars. He even raced Motocross.

“I took more the less dangerous approach,” he said laughing. “After breaking so many bones, I figured it was time to get out.”

And as a fan of the sport, McCook even uses his job working the races as a way to try and give back to the next generation of racing fans.

“One of the things we like to do is after every race, we pick up the used lugnuts,” he said. “During pre-race activities when all the spectators come into the infield to watch the concert or the driver introductions, we like to take them lugnuts and hand them out to little kids. They like that. It’s pretty fun to give the kids the lugnuts.”