“The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I need to make it clear that the NASCAR garage is not a place for lolly-gagging.
After Kyle Busch wrecked out of the race and brought his car behind the wall, his car ran into a woman taking pictures. The woman, Erin Vandyke, was treated at the infield care center and later taken to a local hospital. As of the publishing of this piece, it’s unknown if she’s been released.
I decided to talk about this because I’ve seen people tweet that Busch should be suspended for this. Well here’s the thing, the garage area is not a playground where you can just do whatever as a fan.
Before I could start working in the media center, I was told there are two standing rules in the NASCAR garage area: be aware of your surroundings and DO NOT interfere with pit crew operations. Ignoring one or both of those rules are the fastest ways to get your hot pass pulled. In order to work in the media center, I have to keep my head on a swivel and make sure my photography isn’t preventing a crew member from getting to where he/she needs to go.
Yet in the three races I’ve been on assignment this season, I’ve seen constant cases of fans not paying attention to their surroundings and being in the way of crew members trying to get to their destination. This is especially apparent when the track is hot and the cars are rolling in and out of the garage. I can’t count how many times that I’ve about gotten hit by cars because I can barely get out of their way with some fan behind me who won’t move. Just yesterday, because far too many people had hot passes at Bristol, I couldn’t move out of the way of a member of Casey Mears’s team who was taking gas cans back to the stall. If a security person had been near, I probably would’ve had my hot pass pulled because of fans who just had to be looking at their damn phones.
The point I’m driving at here is that the race track is a dangerous place and you must have constant awareness of your surroundings. If you don’t, you’re going to get yourself injured or killed. If fans continue to not pay attention, NASCAR will start coming down harder on you and make hot passes harder to get.
My plane is about to take off, so I must get going. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this fact. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies room during a dance.
The opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the writer. They may or may not represent the views of SpeedwayMedia.com.
