Marcos Ambrose Team Member Suspended for Chasing Errant Tire

In one of the more bizarre incidents of the young NASCAR Cup season, a crew member for Marcos Ambrose's No. 47 team created chaos during the Atlanta race as he chased a wildly rolling tire across the infield access area and almost out onto the track.

Jimmy Watts, a seven-year pit crew veteran, watched in horror as one of his car's tires started to roll away.  In a spur-of-the-moment reaction, admittedly without much thought, Watts started running and unfortunately kept running after the tire.

Once committed, he chased the tire until it was very close to rolling out onto the track.  NASCAR had no choice but to throw a caution in order to protect the safety of Watts.

The caution came at the completely wrong time for many teams who were in the middle of a green flag pit cycle.  As a result, almost half the drivers in the field went a lap down and many of them were never able to recover.

Watts knew immediately that he had had a complete lapse in judgement and would definitely be punished.  He met with NASCAR officials right after the incident and was immediately suspended from the rest of the race competition for the day.

Watts, who is also a fireman for the Charlotte Fire Department in addition to his gas man duties on the Marcos Ambrose car, said of the incident, "I saw the tire going away and it was a reaction—the wrong one."

He most "certainly did not" think the tire was going to roll so far and by the time he realized where it was going, he knew it was a bad situation.

Watts' bad situation got even worse today as NASCAR suspended Watts for the upcoming four races.  NASCAR made the penalty based on a rule that crew members must not go on the track for any reason while there are cars racing on the track.

Watts was also placed on probation for the rest of the race year. The team's crew chief Frank Kerr was also placed on probation for the season based on his responsibility for the actions of his crew.

Ambrose's team spokesperson said that there will be no appeal and they hope the team can put the incident behind them.

While the penalty seems harsh, NASCAR leadership felt strongly that they needed to send a message about actions that cause unsafe conditions, whatever the intentions.

One of NASCAR's champion drivers, Matt Kenseth, summed it up best, "Maybe he (Watts) hasn't seen us drive, but we tend to wreck a lot.  I wouldn't want to be out in the middle of the grass."

There is no doubt that Jimmy Watts has learned a most difficult, but valuable lesson.  And if there is ever another next time, for Watts or any crew member, the tire will most certainly just roll away—far, far away.