#48-Jimmie Johnson said that drivers are willing to spend their own money to provide a full-time traveling safety team that NASCAR executives have steadfastly refused to pay for. ‘I guarantee you that is something every driver would like to see happen,’ Johnson said of canning the dangerous yellow-flag racing rule. ‘And if it was required of the drivers to help in the funding of that safety team, I think the drivers would all participate. I’d like to see us put something in place like the CART series has, with a traveling group of (safety) people that all the drivers know and all the team members know, that are trained professionals and know our race cars inside and out and can respond immediately and be there on time. I know Alex Zanardi, and I know people that work with him. If that crew of people that CART has was not there and didn’t start working on him immediately and rode on the helicopter with him to the hospital, Alex wouldn’t be here today.” Safety has resurfaced as an issue among NASCAR drivers, particularly the slow response time of emergency teams – in part because of NASCAR’s rule about racing back to the caution flag – and the difficulty in getting out of a wrecked car. Racing back to the yellow, Johnson said, is part of the problem. ‘That’s a big part of it,’ Johnson said. ‘The last thing we want to do is put an ambulance or truck full of safety workers in harm’s way because we race back to the caution. On a road course I think you could probably roll a little easier in come cases. But on an oval you’ve got cars coming at 200 mph. You’ve got to wait until everybody is contained by the pace car.” NASCAR has a new emergency roof hatch that is expected to be approved later this summer. But some drivers are wary about installing it.( Winston Salem Journal )(8-14-2003)
