Crewman hit in Truck Series pit road wreck

LOUDON, N.H. -- Roush Racing jackman Mike West escaped serious injury Saturday when his driver Jon Wood's No. 50 U.S. Navy Ford struck him on pit road at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Wood's truck was turned around by Bill Lester's No. 8 Dodge Motorsports Dodge when Wood tried to enter pit No. 6, two spots in front of Lester's during green flag pit stops on lap 121. At the time Wood was running seventh while Lester had pitted from ninth.

Wood lost a lap getting his truck turned around but rebounded to finish 11th, on the lead lap. Lester finished 14th, two laps down.

"Our whole downfall today was coming together with the 50 in the pits," Lester said. "I saw him back there, but I didn't know where he was pitted. I thought he was coming out of the pits from way back -- I didn't see him cutting in on me.

"My instructions as I understand them are that when the jack is dropped you go. That's what I did. As soon as I turned the wheel, we hit."

The impact rotated Wood's truck counterclockwise and the right rear fender knocked West back some 10 feet. He jacked the truck on that stop, but former crew chief Dan Binks jacked it on the final stop. West was examined initially on pit road and later was treated and released at the track's infield care center.

Lester's Bobby Hamilton Racing team conferred with NASCAR officials, who reviewed videotape of the incident and declined to issue blame, simply calling the accident "unavoidable."

Members of the Roush team were unavailable for comment.

Wood got his lap back when Brian Rose brought out the race's final caution with four laps remaining in the original 200-lap distance and raced into the top-10, but got involved in a scuffle in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap.

Lester was not so fortunate.

"It tore up the truck bad," he said. "The aero was terrible after that. It was tight coming off.

"We were so excited at first. We knew our qualifying effort wasn't indicative of how we were. We knew we had a top-10 truck, probably a top five-truck.

"We were trying to make up for qualifying. We're pretty disappointed about it, but we're all very excited about going to Michigan. I think you're going to see big things from our race team.

"We just keep getting snake bit. I hate to keep saying if and but, but Good Lord."