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Article from the Augusta Chronicle:
CONCORD, N.C. - Gary Nelson has worked both sides of the law in the NASCAR garage area, and in more than 20 years of turning wrenches and busting cheaters, he figured he knew everything about a stock car.
He was wrong.
As a former crew chief and the current director for NASCAR's off-track research and development program, he has learned to separate opinion from facts.
Every day is a learning adventure for Nelson, especially since NASCAR started compiling information from every crash on the Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series. Those facts and figures have led NASCAR into new, more beneficial directions into the sport's never-ending quest to make accidents more preventable and more survivable, he said.
"Things are better," Nelson said of his organization's safety policies. "We will avoid saying how much better because you can't put your feet up on the desk and say you're finished. We've come a long way, but it's just the tip of the iceberg."
There have been 78 races in which data recorders have been mandated in cars and trucks on the three major series this year. The recorders - similar to the black boxes on airliners - provide the sanctioning body with a litany of information such as magnitude and direction of impact.
Nelson wouldn't talk about specific information from any of the crashes, like what was the hardest impact recorded so far. But while many consider the wrecks by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at California and Ricky Hendrick at Las Vegas to be two of the most-severe wrecks of the year, Nelson said both were "down the list."
Wrecks involving Johnny Benson (Daytona 500), Derrike Cope (Richmond Busch Series race) and Christian Elder (California Busch race) were some of the most-severe.
NASCAR continues to compile the information from every crash to find tendencies. What they've learned is the two hottest safety topics of a year ago - crushable components in the front of cars and soft walls at race tracks - aren't the cure-alls everyone thought.
Data now proves that the most-critical area of the car is the right-front tire, not the front bumper, Nelson said. While soft-wall technology works in certain applications at specific tracks, they still create other risks known as "pocketing."
"We've developed some trends, and what we're seeing is pretty exciting," Nelson said.
"One year ago today, there was a lot of focus on the front bumper as a way to absorb energy. What we've found is that's a very small part of it. The right-front tire is the place most-likely to take the hit, not the front of the car. If we didn't have that information in the database, we could have concentrated our efforts in the last year in an area that wasn't beneficial."
Work at Nelson's research and development center in Conover, N.C. - about 45 minutes away from Sunday's UAW-GM 500 at the Lowe's Motor Speedway - has produced several changes in the way stock car racing does its business. NASCAR changed several rules concerning the ****pit of its racers, including the construction of seats and the use of new seatbelt systems. Head-and-neck-restraint systems now are mandatory. The sanctioning body also has tested a larger greenhouse - the area inside the car - to give the driver more room.
NASCAR recently commissioned a study by experts from different areas of science, including engineering and biomechanics, to develop a list of priorities. All three experts agree NASCAR should spend 65 percent of its time and resources working on the driverís compartment, 25 percent on barriers at raceways and just 10 percent on the car itself.
CONCORD, N.C. - Gary Nelson has worked both sides of the law in the NASCAR garage area, and in more than 20 years of turning wrenches and busting cheaters, he figured he knew everything about a stock car.
He was wrong.
As a former crew chief and the current director for NASCAR's off-track research and development program, he has learned to separate opinion from facts.
Every day is a learning adventure for Nelson, especially since NASCAR started compiling information from every crash on the Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series. Those facts and figures have led NASCAR into new, more beneficial directions into the sport's never-ending quest to make accidents more preventable and more survivable, he said.
"Things are better," Nelson said of his organization's safety policies. "We will avoid saying how much better because you can't put your feet up on the desk and say you're finished. We've come a long way, but it's just the tip of the iceberg."
There have been 78 races in which data recorders have been mandated in cars and trucks on the three major series this year. The recorders - similar to the black boxes on airliners - provide the sanctioning body with a litany of information such as magnitude and direction of impact.
Nelson wouldn't talk about specific information from any of the crashes, like what was the hardest impact recorded so far. But while many consider the wrecks by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at California and Ricky Hendrick at Las Vegas to be two of the most-severe wrecks of the year, Nelson said both were "down the list."
Wrecks involving Johnny Benson (Daytona 500), Derrike Cope (Richmond Busch Series race) and Christian Elder (California Busch race) were some of the most-severe.
NASCAR continues to compile the information from every crash to find tendencies. What they've learned is the two hottest safety topics of a year ago - crushable components in the front of cars and soft walls at race tracks - aren't the cure-alls everyone thought.
Data now proves that the most-critical area of the car is the right-front tire, not the front bumper, Nelson said. While soft-wall technology works in certain applications at specific tracks, they still create other risks known as "pocketing."
"We've developed some trends, and what we're seeing is pretty exciting," Nelson said.
"One year ago today, there was a lot of focus on the front bumper as a way to absorb energy. What we've found is that's a very small part of it. The right-front tire is the place most-likely to take the hit, not the front of the car. If we didn't have that information in the database, we could have concentrated our efforts in the last year in an area that wasn't beneficial."
Work at Nelson's research and development center in Conover, N.C. - about 45 minutes away from Sunday's UAW-GM 500 at the Lowe's Motor Speedway - has produced several changes in the way stock car racing does its business. NASCAR changed several rules concerning the ****pit of its racers, including the construction of seats and the use of new seatbelt systems. Head-and-neck-restraint systems now are mandatory. The sanctioning body also has tested a larger greenhouse - the area inside the car - to give the driver more room.
NASCAR recently commissioned a study by experts from different areas of science, including engineering and biomechanics, to develop a list of priorities. All three experts agree NASCAR should spend 65 percent of its time and resources working on the driverís compartment, 25 percent on barriers at raceways and just 10 percent on the car itself.
