NASCAR announced Wednesday morning that it is partnering with American Medical Response to create a traveling safety team.
This marks the first time NASCAR has had a dedicated traveling safety team. Previously, NASCAR used medical liaisons on site working with track-specific medical teams during the weekend and in the infield care center.
The plan is to have a rotating pool of emergency trauma physicians who will split travel for each event. A key is that the physician must be licensed in the state where the event is being held.
NASCAR announced that it will have a chase vehicle that will be sent to the accident site and include an AMR doctor and a paramedic to administer care when needed.
AMR, which delivers EMS support at a number of NASCAR events, will provide a physician to serve as the national medical director of the AMR Safety Team to oversee all services provided by AMR and work with the NASCAR Medical Liaisons and NASCAR Consulting Physicians.
“This is a perfect partner in terms of enhancing of what we already do,’' said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer.
“Candidly, this was a no-brainer. Drivers have looked at care and as you look at concussion protocols and all these things become more and more important of that initial look into the race car, who is that, what is their qualifications and how are decisions being made for us became more and more of a key area to look at. AMR provides that expertise for us.’'
The safety team will be available at Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series weekends. It will not be available for any events separate from the Cup weekend. Thus, Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series standalone events will not have this, but each series will have it available when competing at the same track as Cup in a particular weekend.
