Lift if the other lane breaks?

Once while I was pulling up to stage, the car in the other lane had a problem and one of his crew made a gesture with his hands like snapping a stick in two indicating (to me anyway) that car was broken. The starting line guy motioned for me to stage, which I did and made a run. After I parked in the pits and stepped out of my car, here came one of the guys (maybe the driver) screaming at me "Why didn't you wait?"...