In wake of pit-road fires, NASCAR to implement safety changes
Three weeks after three crew members were injured in a pit-road fire at Richmond International Raceway, NASCAR will implement safety changes starting on June 1.
Sources within the Charlotte Motor Speedway garage confirmed the sanctioning body sent an email to teams earlier in the week issuing the new safety implementations.
Under the new directive, over-the-wall crew members will be required to wear fire-retardant gloves, underwear, head socks and socks.
The move comes after a fire broke out during the April 24 XFINITY Series race at RIR when a fire broke out on the right rear of Brendan Gaughan's No. 62 RCR Chevrolet.
A spark ignited spilled fuel and engulfed gas man Josh Wittman and rear tire changer Anthony O'Brien in flames. Clifford Turner, a crew member of Eric McClure's team was also injured in the incident.
Turner was treated and released from the infield medical center the night of the race, while Wittman and O'Brien were sent to a local hospital for further evaluations. Both were eventually released.
One week later, Ryan Newman's No. 31 RCR Chevrolet also caught on fire during the Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. In this case, the fire was extinguished quickly and no crew members were injured.
While it may appear the sanctioning body is being reactive to the fires at Richmond and Talladega, NASCAR senior vice president of competition and racing development Robin Pemberton told FOXSports.com these rules already recommended.
"It's really just formalizing something that was recommendations all along," Pemberton said. "We just put it in that it is required. Our safety group was doing their due diligence after Richmond. Many of the teams were already at full compliance in many of the areas."
Before NASCAR introduced the new safety regulations, some teams -- including RCR and Michael Waltrip Racing -- introduced full-face helmets and fire-retardant safety gear on their own.
Pemberton said the implementation of the new safety requirements came together as part of an initiative driven by the sanctioning body, teams, crew members and the industry as a whole.
"The safety thing is always something we're working on, it a lot of different areas," he said. "Sometimes you get a reminder that you have to step the pace up in different areas and this was one of those times."
