NASCAR drivers voice concerns that ambulances are getting lost on way to medical center

Conventional wisdom suggests that in the aftermath of a crash during a NASCAR race drivers would be initially attended to, then taken to an on-site medical facility as quickly as possible. But that isn’t always the case, according to former Cup Series champions Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth.

When an ambulance blocked Kenseth’s path to pit road last weekend at Richmond Raceway, it wasn’t his first misadventure with a safety vehicle at the Virginia short track. Once following a crash in the spring race there, Kenseth said he was riding in the back of ambulance that got lost on the way to the care center.

“I was [riding] around the infield for about five minutes with him and he was lost and couldn’t find the care center,” Kenseth told reporters Wednesday at NASCAR’s playoff media day in Charlotte, N.C. “Thankfully I wasn’t bleeding to death.”

Kenseth also said an ambulance ride at Auto Club Speedway was so bumpy that it bounced him off his seat.

“He drove so recklessly, it threw me off the bench and I almost hit my head in the ambulance,” Kenseth said.

Harvick’s point of contention with ambulances isn’t just the driver knowing the route to the care center, but also the response time in getting to him following an accident. When he had a significant crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March, there was a noticeable delay before any safety vehicle reached his car.

“I think everybody is going a great job when they get to the cars, but we still have some issues of getting the ambulances and things from several drivers to the infield care center without getting lost,” Harvick said. “And that’s been an issue for not only myself, twice, but several other drivers as they’ve had their trips to the infield care center.

“Getting the ambulance, the chase truck and the ambulance to the accident scene as soon as possible when you know it’s a major impact is important. I know they are continuously working to try to make that better, but the ambulances need to know where they’re going.”

NASCAR said this week it would reevaluate its procedures to prevent a reoccurrence of a safety vehicle not following directives and stopping at the wrong place on the track. The stopped ambulance caused Kenseth to rear-end Clint Bowyer and Kenseth suffered major damage to his car, knocking him out of the race. The incident put him at risk of not qualifying for the Cup playoffs, though he ultimately did.

NASCAR issued a statement Wednesday in the wake of drivers raising concerns about its safety response protocol.

“The follow-up discussions that centered around the ambulance issue at Richmond went well beyond where it parked and the procedure that led us to that point. It was all-encompassing, and we’ll continue to work with the tracks and safety teams to improve in every aspect of support. Safety is paramount, and it’s something we work hard at all year long, from the season-opening Summit to intensive weekly reviews of every incident response to continual training for crews. We hold ourselves to a very high standard of excellence.”