NASCAR's Miller explains ambulance incident

The directive from NASCAR to the ambulance driver was clear: Stop!

"Pretty simple: stop," said NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller after the Federated Auto Parts 400. "He didn't stop when he was told to."

Under caution at Richmond on Lap 257, an ambulance stopped at the entrance to pit road as the pits were open and drivers began turning onto the apron. Some drivers were able to swerve around the ambulance. Others, like Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer, suffered damage when they slammed into the back of others slowing in front of them.

For Kenseth, the accordion effect ended his night. A busted radiator took the polesitter from leading 89 laps to behind the wall. Fortunately, Kenseth still made the playoffs.

Bowyer was not as lucky. After running in the top 10 through the first half of the race, Bowyer needed repairs to the nose of his No. 14 Ford. His night then continued to unravel when his team was later called for two pit road penalties. Bowyer finished 24th.

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"We probably should [have closed pit road]," Miller said. "Those calls are very dynamic and they happen very, very quickly. It's the race director in charge of pit road open and closed and it's the track services and safety crew in charge of the other [directives]. We didn't sync up tonight and we will make sure that we don't let that happen again."

Kenseth said he couldn't get stopped in time but questioned why pit road was opened. Martin Truex Jr. said someone was not paying attention or doing their job properly, calling it inexcusable. After how his night unfolded, a visibly upset Bowyer quickly left pit road.

"Here's how that went wrong. When we have our stage breaks they usually have three or four yellow-flag laps to control the field, and they opened up pit road way too soon there and there was an ambulance in the middle of pit road," said Kurt Busch. "It's because these stages are confusing race calls."

When asked how the sanctioning body can go about making sure an incident like Saturday night does not happen again, Miller said, "We get all the people that were involved in the incident, put them in a room and go through it and recreate it. Try to determine how we don't let it happened again."