Star names hit out at safety crews

Two of the NASCAR Winston Cup's top stars, Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman, have struck out at safety provisions in the series after separate incidents in Sunday's race at Watkins Glen

Aug 12, 2003, 2:40 PM

Newman somersaulted his Dodge in practice on Friday and was stuck in his car, which had come to rest on its side. He claims it took 1m40secs for marshals to help him.

"The response time is something that needs to be fixed," said Newman. "Once the team got there, they didn't have a clue what to do."

Gordon, meanwhile, was punted into the barrier at the final corner of the race. It took the safety crew such a long time to arrive at the scene, race winner Robby Gordon was performing doughnuts on the start/finish straight by the time his namesake Jeff, who was uninjured, was able to climb aboard an ambulance.

Gordon called the response "ridiculous" and that "100 people could have got to me in the time they did".

The ambulance then got stuck in traffic on the way to the track's medical centre, adding to his anger.