Exit strategy: Emergency response to Damar Hamlin resonates with racing’s safety teams
LOS ANGELES — Flames shot up inside NASCAR Cup Series driver Ty Gibbs’ Toyota while the 20-year-old practiced for the Clash inside the LA Coliseum. As Gibbs pulled over, unhooked his belts and hurried out the window, AMR safety vehicles navigated the unique quarter-mile temporary circuit — a track that didn’t exist just weeks earlier — and within seconds, deployed their equipment to douse the flames and preserve the race car.
The sight of an emergency vehicle on the playing surface — an ambulance on the field of Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a Monday Night Football game against the Bengals — halted the sports world in its tracks a few weeks before the fire on the Coliseum floor. Millions of people watched in real time as the NFL’s emergency action plan was set in motion.
“One of my co-workers sent me a text, ‘Are you watching this?’ ” said Tom Bryant, NASCAR’s
