Ambulance on pit road nearly ruins race
The Associated Press
It was hardly NASCAR’s finest moment when an ambulance clogged the entrance to Richmond’s pit road in a freak incident that could have ruined the regular-season finale.
A caution in Saturday night’s race — the one that finalizes the field for the playoffs — sent cars to pit road for a routine stop. But for reasons NASCAR does not yet know, an ambulance had parked itself along the route and immediately bottlenecked the traffic.
NASCAR got lucky that no one was injured as cars frantically darted around the ambulance. Some couldn’t slow in time and drivers began running into each other. Matt Kenseth got the worst of it — his hood was crumpled and his night was instantly over.
Had that incident cost Kenseth a spot in the playoffs, NASCAR would have had a huge mess to clean up before the playoffs begin this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Kenseth was not locked into the 16-driver field, and a firsttime winner on the season would have bumped him out of the playoffs.
Although Kenseth remained calm when his fate was taken out of his hands, regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr. was furious.
“Whoever hits the button to open pit road needs to pay attention to what’s going on on the racetrack,” Truex said. “Somebody obviously wasn’t paying attention or wasn’t doing their job probably, and in my opinion at this level, it’s inexcusable.”
It was a bad look for NASCAR in a very big race, and NASCAR knows it has to clean that up before its showcase playoffs begin Sunday.
NASCAR senior vice president Scott Miller said the ambulance driver did not follow the directive to stop before pit road, while noting the screw-up is “not like this is a common occurrence for us. It was a very strange thing.”
Still, Miller agreed with Truex that pit road should have been closed the moment the ambulance was spotted.
Truex actually clinched the regular-season title a week ago at Darlington and this new reward came with a trophy presentation to match the bonus points Truex takes into the playoffs. NASCAR decided to wait until Saturday night to officially give Truex and his team the trophy, and the timing was less than ideal.
For the second week in a row, a race Truex could have won ended in a crash. He was less than thrilled as he accepted his trophy.
Truex had the Richmond win in hand when Derrike Cope brought out the caution and sent the race to overtime.