Pit Road Safety: NASCAR’s Jim Hunter said yesterday that the sanctioning body has begun a major study of the Winston Cup tour’s 24 pit roads with an eye toward making changes to improve safety for over-the-wall crews. “We’re going to be all over this,” Hunter said. “I don’t think there is anything we wouldn’t look at and really analyze. And the more proactive we can be, the better off we’ll be.” The current pit-road debate comes after an incident at Rockingham in which David Bryant, a front-tire carrier for Rick Hendrick’s Jimmie Johnson team, was seriously injured when hit by Mark Martin. Bryant’s leg was broken, and he underwent surgery to have it pinned back together. He’s expected to be sidelined at least three months. Pit road on the stock-car tour has become a major battleground, as difficult as it is at most tracks to pass. Even some of the most fierce of the over-the-wall crews are looking over their shoulders these days. Kevin Hamlin, the crew chief for Kevin Harvick, said that larger pits are a solution: “The drivers do their best to try to miss these guys, but at some of the tracks where the pit stalls are a little smaller and pit road is a little narrower, it becomes another hazard. Hunter said some things are going to change on Winston Cup pit roads, although he’s not sure what. “We’re in the process right now of analyzing exactly where we might be able to make some improvements,” Hunter said. “There are two areas we’re focused on: One is the size of the pit stalls themselves. To do that we’re assessing the range of sizes at tracks on the tour, from the smallest, like Bristol and Martinsville, to the biggest, which is actually Vegas and California. And then we’ll develop a plan of action to get to the end result, whatever that might be. Two is to review the pit procedures as they apply to pit stops. And there is the possibility – maybe not the probability, but the possibility – of coming up with different procedures for different tracks. That’s on the drawing board. We’ll be talking to the tracks individually, and most track owners, when we ask them to do something for safety, they’ve been pretty cooperative.”(in part from the Winston Salem Journal)(3-6-2002)
