Crews must work together on pit road for clean race

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- One of the biggest miracles in Cup Series racing might be that, in a high-pressure, high-emotion -- and most important, a high-speed mechanized environment -- that more over-the-wall pit crewmen aren't injured on a weekly basis.

NASCAR's instituted a number of rule changes, including pit road speed limits, limiting the number of opponents' pit boxes you can drive through to reach your own pit, mandating single-file entrance to pit road, and crew members' safety equipment, including helmets, fire suits and gloves.

Pit-road mistake

• Miscue changed complexion
• Watch video of the incident
• Suspended four races

But the bottom line is the biggest reason might be that well-trained professional athletes are involved -- both in the race cars and on foot servicing them -- and that they all exercise a lot of mutual respect and empathy.

"That's how I feel about it, pretty much," Kevin Harvick's crew chief, Todd Berrier said. "I want them to treat me like they'd want to be treated. I'm not going to do anybody wrong and I'm going to make sure we treat 'em as good as we want to be treated. But you still do tell each other when you're going to be pitting and try to work together as much as you can."

"We've got trained athletes, and that's what they're there to do," Marcos Ambrose's crew chief Frank Kerr said. "That's their job just like it's my job to get the race car going. You know, NASCAR's done a great job with safety, in slowing the cars down on pit road over the years. The workers are better and NASCAR's taken care of the safety aspect.

"A few years back when there was no speed limit on pit road it was open season on them pit crew guys, so now you very rarely see anyone get hurt on pit road, so it's a tribute to NASCAR."

The topic came to a head in Atlanta, when a runaway tire from Ambrose's No 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Toyota rolled into the "no man's land" between pit road and the race track, where a JTGD crewman, Jimmy Watts, ran out to retrieve it; forcing NASCAR to throw a caution flag when Watts reached a dangerous location. (Continued)