An ambulance inadvertently parked on the track at the entrance to pit road caused a pileup during Saturday night’s NASCAR race at Richmond Raceway, almost costing Matt Kenseth a berth in the Monster Energy Cup Series playoffs.
The regular-season finale was under caution for a spin involving Danica Patrick on Lap 255 when, two laps later, pit road was opened for drivers to make their stops. Inexplicably, though, an ambulance went onto the track and parked at the entrance to pit road, causing some drivers to take evasive action to avoid the safety vehicle.
But the traffic jam caused Clint Bowyer to slow suddenly and Kenseth, who started on the pole and led 89 laps on the night, to rear-end Bowyer’s Ford, resulting in significant damage to both cars. Bowyer was able to continue, while Kenseth’s team was unable to make repairs, forcing him to retire from the Federated Auto Parts 400.
We'll be talking about this one for a while. Matt Kenseth's night is OVER after heavy damage avoiding a safety truck! pic.twitter.com/2XHtSZepNT
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 10, 2017
Kenseth finished 38th and would’ve missed the postseason if a driver not yet playoff eligible had won Saturday night. But because Kyle Larson won for the fourth time in 2017, Kenseth clinched the final spot in the 16-driver playoffs that begin next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.
“We were all just kind of coming to pit road and I saw an ambulance sitting there and so I looked left of the ambulance at the same time [my spotter] yelled at everyone to stop, there was an ambulance just sitting there,” Kenseth said. “It was an accordion effect and I just couldn’t get stopped. Not really sure why pit road was open with an ambulance parked there, but everybody stopped and I didn’t see it in time and ran into the car in front of me.”
In addition to Kenseth and Bowyer, Joey Logano also suffered damage. Logano was able to continue and finished second.
NASCAR officials said the mishap on pit road was caused by the ambulance driver not stopping where directed. Scott Miller, senior vice president of competition for NASCAR, said the sanctioning body will look into the incident and work to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
NASCAR did not issue penalties to those drivers who violated the commitment line rule getting onto pit road while dodging the ambulance.
“It's not like this is a common occurrence for us; it was a very strange thing,” Miller said. “The track workers are usually very, very good at following the directives. Tonight, they didn't follow the directive from the tower. We will do our due diligence to figure it out.”