Newman repeats call for NASCAR safety team
AVONDALE, Ariz. – Ryan Newman on Tuesday repeated his call for a dedicated safety crew that would travel to all NASCAR events and would be able to meet the medical needs of all drivers.
Newman’s statement came at Phoenix International Raceway, where he was participating in a NASCAR Sprint Cup test.
“The tracks typically have held the responsibility of a medical crew or a safety crew, and NASCAR has their medical liaisons and they have a medical staff that travels with them, but they've got a bigger staff in their catering business to feed their people,” Newman said. “We, as drivers and as teammates, would prefer if NASCAR had a traveling safety team that knew our cars in and out. There's been times I spoke about – I guess it was probably almost four years ago now, at Watkins Glen – when it took them 25 seconds or whatever to get me out of the car, and they didn't know what to do when they got there, and that's not cool.”
Newman said there are “educated people out there” who understand what drivers go through during a crash and who also understand what drivers needs immediately following a wreck.
He said he didn’t see Tony Stewart limp away from a crash Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but heard about it – and didn’t understand why Stewart walked away from his wrecked car.
“I know he walked over to the pace car or whatever and got into a safety vehicle instead of getting into the ambulance, and that's not cool,” Newman said. “I don't know the entire situation, but I'm aware of that, and that's not the way it's supposed to be. Whether Tony said anything about it, I don't know or not.
“As I've always said, it'd be a good idea to have – a great idea – to have a traveling safety team and medical team and staff who are there, not just for the drivers but for the team members, the crew members. There are as many injuries on pit road as there are with drivers on the race track.
“When it comes to medical staff understanding their patients – we've got 15 guys per team, and whatever 15 times 43 is, what, 600? If they had to keep track of 600 people, that's not outrageously difficult – you have 10 people to take care of 60 people.”
