Homestead accident was 'waiting to happen'.

The pit-lane incident which left Robert Yates Racing crew member Bobby Burrell in a Miami hospital was ' waiting to happen' according to rival crew chief Jimmy Makar.

Burrell, a tyre changer on Ricky Rudd's Texaco/Havoline Ford, was caught up in the accident already involving rookie Casey Atwood and Ward Burton after the latter was called out of his pit stall at just the wrong moment. With his back to pit-lane, Burrell was unable to see Burton's car approaching and the Caterpillar-sponsored machine bowled him across the pitbox and into the pitwall where he remained unconscious until being airlifted to nearby Jackson Methodist Hospital.

Although Burrell was later listed as 'awake and alert' in the hospital, he remains in serious condition, prompting Makar to call for a review of pit-lane safety procedures.

"We've had close calls for a long time - the pit road is a dangerous place and always has been," the crew chief for Bobby Labonte's #18 Pontiac explained, "I know we've done some things over the years to make it safer - speed limits and such, limiting the number of people out there, and when they can go out there - but when they are down on their knees around the other side of that car, changing tyres and working on it, they're sitting ducks for an accident.

"I don't know how you stop it, other than make pit-road wider - get the cars away from the cars pitting on pit-road - to give the drivers an opportunity to pull out away from the cars pitting. This is a pretty narrow pit-road when you look at it. When you start putting them two cars wide going down there after they've done their pit-stops, and then have another car trying to pull out and another pitting, you're talking about being four cars wide and still have guys trying to work on the race cars. It's just not a good situation. I think we need to take a longer, harder look at what we can do."

Labonte, the reigning Winston Cup champion, agreed with his crew chief, and admitted that there was much to be addressed.

"At the end of pit road, everybody gets pretty congested," he revealed, "When you've got 29 cars on the lead lap and half of them take two tyres and half of them take four, you all end up at the end of pit-road at the same time. There are a lot of issues there."

NASCAR has responded to the accident by saying that it will consider urging teams to ensure all crew members wear helmets at future races.

"Helmets are optional now, but we're taking a hard look at either mandating them or strongly recommending them," vice-president for corporate communications Jim Hunter told NASCAR.com.

Some teams have said that they are considering the move outside of a mandate from the governing body, but others are less welcoming, claiming that the helmets may impair performance on pit-road. Cal Wells' PPI Motorsports team already uses the helmets, an idea it was introduced to during its spell in the CART series where helmets are mandatory.

Burrell's crew-mates John Bryan and Kevin Hall have both been released from hospital following the accident. Bryan was treated for a mild concussion, lacerations and bruises, but had no broken bones, while Hall was also treated for bruises and lacerations, but travelled no further than the Homestead circuit's infield care centre and was able to return home with the team on Sunday evening.