NASCAR officials facing questions about safety issues, in the wake of Sunday's New Hampshire 300

   If NASCAR is so committed to safety -- and it certainly is -- then officials should start cracking down hard on drivers who run over pit crewmen or hit other cars on pit road (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net
 
   NASCAR is taking heat for a number of safety issues in Sunday's 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, particularly for that slow caution flag on the last lap, when AJ Allmendinger spun and was sitting stalled in the middle of the track for maybe some 15 or 20 seconds, while the leaders raced around the track toward the checkered flag.
   No one was injured in that incident, but several drivers have criticized NASCAR for being too slow to throw the yellow, including Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman.
   Other drivers said they weren't really sure what was going – their spotters warned them of Allmendinger stalled on the track, but it was unclear when or if NASCAR would throw the yellow. So they kept racing, while NASCAR hoped Allmendinger would get his car refired and out of the way.
   However that wasn't the only serious safety issue during the race – pit road was particularly dangerous. Kurt Busch tagged David Ragan during a round of pit stops, and Ragan's car was knocked 180 degrees. Fortunately no one was injured.
   But another pit crewman, Clint Pittman, rear-tire man for the Casey Mears-Richard Childress team, broke his right foot when Denny Hamlin hit him during a stop. Pittman is expected to be out the rest of the season.
   NASCAR didn't penalize any drivers for those safety infractions – not the men who were racing back to the checkered flag (apparently including Hamlin and Juan Pablo Montoya, among them), and not Busch nor Hamlin for their pit road issues. Last weekend at Richmond Tony Stewart also hit a pit crewman, but NASCAR threw no penalty.