NASCAR responds to ambulance incident at Richmond
By Asher Fair
During the NASCAR race at Richmond on Saturday, an ambulance was on the track where it should not have been, ruining Matt Kenseth’s race. Here is how NASCAR responded.
When Danica Patrick and Austin Dillon came together on lap 256 during the NASCAR Cup Series 400-lap regular season finale, the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, Patrick spun out, bringing out a caution flag.
During this caution period, a number of drivers made their way to the pits for fuel and tire service, as was expected. However, what was not expected was an ambulance sitting on the apron of the track right at the pit commitment line.
This ambulance caught a few drivers off guard, including race polesitter Matt Kenseth, who slammed into the back of Clint Bowyer’s Ford as a result of the unexpectedness of the situation. This impact damaged Kenseth’s radiator, ending his race and forcing him to finish way back in 38th place. It had the potential to take away his spot in the playoffs as well, which I will touch upon later.
Here is a video of the incident.
The incident very well could have ended up costing Matt Kenseth his spot in this year’s playoffs. He ended up being the last driver to qualify for the playoffs in the 16th and final spot, doing so via his points total since he did not secure a victory in the regular season.
Had a driver who had not yet won in the 2017 season (or Joey Logano, whose lone win earlier this season at Richmond was encumbered) and was not in the playoff picture on points total ended up winning the race, Kenseth would have been out of the playoffs.
And it almost happened. Joey Logano finished in 2nd place, with rookies Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez finishing in 6th and 7th, respectively. While this incident is still a huge deal, it could have been 100 times bigger had it affected the playoff picture in a huge way like that.
Here is what NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller had to say about the incident.
"“He didn’t stop when he was told to…We had a situation where a directive was given from the tower and it wasn’t followed. We’ll do our due diligence to figure out why the directive wasn’t followed and make sure we’re prepared never to make that mistake again.”More from NASCARNASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024NASCAR: Will Kevin Harvick’s major record ever be broken?NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seatNASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?NASCAR set for rare appearance last seen 13 years ago“We probably should (have closed pit road). Those calls are very dynamic in that they happen very, very quickly. It’s the race director in charge of pit road open and close and the track services and safety crew in charge of the other. We didn’t sync up tonight. We will make sure that we don’t let that happen again.”“It’s very tight at pit-in and as I said, we will analyze the situation and do a better job…We obviously have a lot of people in the tower watching a lot of different things. All of it is based on race directives from the tower, radio communications to the people that are out on the race track and when those directives aren’t followed, we end up in a situation like tonight. As I’ve said, dissect it and figure out how not to make the mistake again.”"
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