Dangerous wreck ahead for NASCAR
After a horrific crash at Talladega Superspeedway in April, when the racecar driven by Carl Edwards went airborne and slammed into the outer fence spreading debris into the stands, Edwards implored NASCAR to do something to make racing at that track safer.
“We’ll race like this until we kill somebody and then they’ll change it,” Edwards said moments after crawling out of his destroyed race car.
Seven people in the stands were injured by flying debris. But it could have been much worse. That Edwards survived the wreck speaks volumes about safety in NASCAR today, more than eight years after the death of driver Dale Earnhardt in a wreck on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. NASCAR has since designed a safer racecar that could be credited — along with soft walls and other equipment improvements — with saving untold drivers. There have been no deaths in the premier Cup series following Earnhardt.
But the wrecks at tracks like Talladega and Daytona International Speedway, two superspeedways where speeds are artificially limited to prevent drivers from going too fast, seem to be getting more and more violent.
And as Edwards said, if NASCAR doesn’t move aggressively to make changes particularly at high-banked Talledega, eventually someone could get killed.
The latest highlight-reel crash came on Saturday night at Daytona, when driver Kyle Busch was leading on the final lap of the Coke Zero 400 with Tony Stewart in close pursuit. Busch tried to block Stewart from passing him, but instead Busch wound up hitting Stewart’s racecar. That sent Busch into the wall in a crash that collected numerous cars in a pack behind him. Busch was hit three times; first by Stewart, then by Kasey Kahne and Joey Logano. It was Logano who slammed into Busch’s driver’s side door panel, T-boning the racecar.
Just as with Edwards, there was a hold-your-breath moment for fans wondering if Busch could walk away from such a terrible crash. He did.
This time.
One need only look to some of the headlines and commentary after the races at Daytona and Talladega to understand why NASCAR might be hesitant to change anything despite the wrecks. Wrote ESPN.com of the so-called “plate racing” at Daytona, referring to the restrictor plate over the carburetor that limits speeds: “Plate racing + New car = Fantastic finish.”
There was similarly effusive praise from one writer after the Talledega crash.
“I’m not going to apologize for enjoying that race or that finish,” wrote NASCAR Scene’s Jeff Gluck. “It was awesome, spectacular, mind-blowing…whatever you want to call it.
“But reading my peers’ stories today makes you wonder what people really want: Is NASCAR a thrilling sport or a safe, boring game? Maybe we should all just go play Scrabble, where no one can get hurt.”
NASCAR has been criticized for the new racecar that some say makes racing boring at many tracks. But Talladega and Daytona often produce must-see television — for the wrecks as much as the racing. Because speeds are limited by those plates, drivers wind up racing at full speed in a pack that inevitably creates “the big one.” Those are the multiple-car pile-ups that happen just about every race at Talladega and Daytona.
The entertainment factor of these crashes can’t be underestimated.
“There is nothing to do to stop it,” driver Jimmie Johnson said before Saturday’s race. “If you think about the position that the sport is in, one race, it’s boring, there’s no racing, there’s no excitement. And then a couple races there’s an exciting finish and we’re worried about the exciting finish. You know, it’s plate racing. We’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t.”
So is NASCAR selling racing or selling wrecks at those tracks? Perhaps a little of both. If it plays into all of the negative stereotypes of those outside the sport who believe NASCAR fans are only interested in the wrecks, so be it.
But it’s a dangerous combination when you mix that entertainment with a driver’s sense of invulnerability in the NASCAR-designed race car. In both the Edwards and Busch wrecks, the other drivers never lifted off the gas pedal or let up to avoid the contact. That’s racing. If that car makes drivers even more daring on the track, it’s a formula for disaster.
Eventually, unless NASCAR makes some change to the racecar, the engine, the tracks or the rules of competition, a driver will take too great a risk and the laws of physics will once again be pushed beyond the limit.
And then NASCAR will be right back where it started on Feb. 18, 2001, the day that Dale Earnhardt died, with fingers pointed and the question asked once again, “Could NASCAR have prevented this from happening?”
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NASCAR will take safety seriously the same day you no longer see signs in the tailgate areas alluding to Jeff Gordon’s supposed homosexuality. NASCAR has always been the last racing league to adopt safety measures like HANS and the SAFER wall, and it always will be. The only “safety” NASCAR gets itself worked up about is the mysterious “debris” caution used to bunch up the field.
Bob,
To its credit, NASCAR has made the sport safer. But it’s never a done deal. The sport needs to continue safety efforts, and heed warnings like the one given by Carl Edwards after the Talladega wreck. If NASCAR doesn’t, it’s probably inevitable that another tragedy will occur.
Right from the start, let me say racing in general and NASCAR in particular needs to be as safe as it can be. No one wants to see anyone get hurt. Race fans are not so callous and insensitive as to actually want to see a participant, whoever it may be, actually get injured. At times though you may very well hear comments that would cause you to think otherwise. Part of the allure of NASCAR is, and always has been, the trash talking back and forth between a particular driver’s fans. But as Dale Sr. used to say with some regularity “That’s racin’.”
However, a stock car race without wrecks does not draw fans. That’s what the bulk of them, if they would admit it, come for. Walk along with the crowd coming into, or leaving, a track on any particular day and see what they are talking about. Do you hear anyone saying, “Dang that sure was a good race today. They went the whole way and didn’t even brush the wall.” or “Boy I hope no one dents any cars tonight!” Heck NO ! ! You hear things like “Man Ol’ So&So got Ol’ What’sisFace back for putting him in the wall.” or “Wait till next week, he’ll get him back.” Then they come back for the race next week to see if their driver makes good on that. I say this to make the point that stock racing is not a sport that should be sanitized to the point that all that happens at a race is 42 cars going round and round a track for a few hours until a checkered flag is waved and then everybody loads up and goes home until next week. Talk about dull!! Fans do not come to a track and spend their hard-earned money to sit there and watch something like that. They want to see a hard charging, physical confrontation between the forces of good and evil with the forces of good personified in the form of their particular favorite driver and/or make of car and the forces of evil taking the form of the rest of the field. That’s what it’s all about, not a field of cookie cutter cars with cookie cutter drivers driving around a track in a cookie cutter orchestrated fashion saying “Please” and “May I.”
Now the trick for NASCAR is to make the races as safe as they possibly can for participants and fans alike while maintaining a hard charging, physical confrontation on the track. They are going to have to stay abreast of innovations in safety, but in the process not stifle the creative talents of the mechanics and crew chiefs in the shops. Some of the best creations in the sport have been born in the minds of some of the savvy, crafty minds of the folks who build the cars and make them able to do what they do each and every weekend. Should driver’s concerns and comments be taken into account? Sure, but if you’ve been around NASCAR for any great length of time you know the involved parties always have, and probably always will , be quick to complain that some thing or the other is not right. That too is just “racin’.”
Let’s hope NASCAR can do it without molding stock car racing into a sport that’s as exciting as watching a coat of paint dry on a warm Saturday night.
“Rubbin’ is racin’” and it always will be. Wrecks are a part of NASCAR and they always will be, too. Bristol, before the surface was redone, was one of the great examples of NASCAR at its hard-charging, fender-bending confrontational best.
I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the wrecks at high speed tracks like Daytona and Talladega, the ones where the racecars can become airborne and can seriously threaten drivers and fans. NASCAR can’t afford that again, particularly when drivers are calling for officials to do something.
In response to another comment. See in context »