A member of Marcos Ambrose's pit crew chased a loose tire into the infield at Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500, trying to save drivers from a fiery crash. But no good deed goes unpunished.
During green-flag pit stops on the race's 67th lap, Jimmy Watts, a gasman on Marcos Ambrose's pit crew, chased a loose tire that had rolled out of Ambrose's pit box. Watts ran halfway between pit road and the track's front straightway, where cars were racing at speeds above 170 MPH, as he tried to retrieve the tire. The incident caused the third of 11 cautions during the race. Watts was suspended for the remainder of Sunday's race.
We're torn about NASCAR's decision. Heck, even NASCAR admits their torn in its official press release, saying:
"To some, this ruling might be deemed as unnecessary, he was simply trying to avoid a wreck by having the tire roll onto the racetrack. On the other hand, if he would have been injured because of his actions, NASCAR would have been held responsible."
So what was the negative? Well, the caution caused multiple cars to go down by at least a lap since some of them had pitted and other had not. Oh god, not that. Not a one-lap loss from a caution on the 67th of 325 laps when NASCAR could have seen a fiery crash to boost ratings! Jimmy, you bastard! [via Deadspin]