NASCAR safety

HoneyBadger

HoneyBadger

I love short track racing (Taylor's Version)
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You can criticize NASCAR for a lot of things, but one thing you can't criticize them for is safety.

Point blank, Ryan Newman's crash was not survivable 15 years ago. And that crash was not survivable in many other disciplines of racing.

Safety has been their top priority since even before Dale Earnhardt died, and they've hit a home run.

On top of that, you know NASCAR's going to have a rigorous inspection into Ryan Newman's crash and work to make sure that type of accident doesn't result in serious injuries in the future.
 
Though it's not one of the most remembered crashes, I always look back at Regan Smiths Talladega crash several years ago. He went head on into the outside wall and I immediately thought that it was going to be bad. Before I could even get too worried, he hopped out of the car and walk to the ambulance. NASCAR makes every effort to make the sport as safe as possible and I commend them for that. Even when I get annoyed that it takes so long to dry the track after a brief shower, I have to remind myself that is all for the drivers safety.
 
100% agreed It's why I never complain about anything they do for safety.

I was so glad when we got the news that it wasn't anything life threatening. We surely have came a really long way.
 
You can't criticize NASCAR for the safety of the cars.

You can certainly criticizes them for continuing to run on tracks that are unsafe for 21st century cars, and for forcing the cars into accident-prone packs for the sake of running at those two tracks, and for its 'Green-White-Checkered' rule that basically guarantees accidents.
 
"You can certainly criticize them for continuing to run on tracks that are unsafe for 21st century cars, and for forcing the cars into accident-prone packs for the sake of running at those two tracks, and for its 'Green-White-Checkered' rule that basically guarantees accidents."

I'll wholehearted agree with at least the portion in bold.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
You can't criticize NASCAR for the safety of the cars.

You can certainly criticizes them for continuing to run on tracks that are unsafe for 21st century cars, and for forcing the cars into accident-prone packs for the sake of running at those two tracks, and for its 'Green-White-Checkered' rule that basically guarantees accidents.
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Agreed. I assume you mean Daytona and Talladega, but I will add Pocono and Indy to that list. I have been saying for nearly 20 years that the next fatality in NASCAR will be due to the pit road entrance wall at those tracks...there needs to be something done about that
 
Charlie Spencer said:
You can't criticize NASCAR for the safety of the cars.

You can certainly criticizes them for continuing to run on tracks that are unsafe for 21st century cars, and for forcing the cars into accident-prone packs for the sake of running at those two tracks, and for its 'Green-White-Checkered' rule that basically guarantees accidents.
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I just can't see them not going there. A lot of fans would be mad, because we talk about tradition, well those tracks are apart of NASCAR. They need to do something about the cars, not the track. The Daytona 500 is like, the biggest race the got. You can't get rid of it. It be like not doing the Indy 500.
 
Well if you think the " this is the end of NASCAR" folks had ammunition just try to take away Daytona and Talladega. That includes knocking down the banking.
 
Spotter22 said:
Well if you think the " this is the end of NASCAR" folks had ammunition just try to take away Daytona and Talladega. That includes knocking down the banking.
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I think it will happen when pigs fly, but it is interesting every year to read the comments. The car has proven to be about as safe as it can be considering what it has to do, stay on the ground at speeds over what it takes to get a 747 off the ground.
 
I agree with Andy on this. But I will say this, how much longer before the drivers demand something be done about the plate races? Most drivers hate them and now one of their own is injured.
 
MRM said:
I agree with Andy on this. But I will say this, how much longer before the drivers demand something be done about the plate races? Most drivers hate them and now one of their own is injured.
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Some will complain but they arent going anywhere. if they dont want to race their they could ask the car owner to put someone else in. ;)
 
MRM said:
how much longer before the drivers demand something be done about the plate races?
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I didn't see anyone carrying signs that said "stop Super Speedway racing now" out of the over 100 thousand fans that were there.
 
I don't like plate racing, but drivers can get hurt at any track. Ask Almirola and Hamlin.
 
It’s one area NASCAR has been extremely proactive about. Even before Dale’s passing drivers had the option to use a device that was the HANS device before officially named. Now they have that coupled with so many other safety necessities.

There is no doubt in my mind that that Earnhardt bar, Newman bar and the foam block in the driver side door of the car saved Ryan this passed weekend.
 
Did they did cut the Glen out after JD McDuffie? No, they just did some reconfiguration. No one has died on a road course since.
 
as I think @StandOnIt said...this is not golf. its dangerous. sometimes things happen to remind us of that.
Just like spaceflight. Sometimes it gets to be routine until something happens to remind us its not.
 
Michfan said:
Believe it or not they have raced at Daytona without 30+ car packs and people watched. Shocking for some here, I'm sure
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I think it was 1959 when Jr Johnson figured out that if he could get right up behind a faster car it will pull him around the track. So you talking pre 59 then?
 
DRS3 said:
I think safer barriers have helped more than anything. The first thing Newman hit was the wall hard enough to flip the car over.
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Yes, and it was a compound wreck -- several major impact events (wall, car, track) with airborne segments followed by a grinding upside down slide to a halt. I'm probably missing something...
 
Joker said:
Did they did cut the Glen out after JD McDuffie? No, they just did some reconfiguration. No one has died on a road course since.
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I fully support reconfiguring the tracks for safety reasons. It’s NASCAR’s complete rejection of the idea that keeps me from praising them as having done all they reasonably can. Reconfigure the tracks; stop passing a bunch of special rules to the car and the racing that apply only here.
 
Smart Cars for next year. Pass out 40 of them with roll cages in November, and let the teams make the front look like camrys, mustangs and whatever chevy claims there's to be. Unleash them for the Duels -- then make a decision if you're gonna use a restrictor tuner or even let them draft during the Daytona 500.

Oh yeah, better start that race early...
 
when sombodycan out figure the laws of physics pertaining to drafting where their isn't any way possible to do so, I'll call ya the second coming of Einstein. Nascar figured it out a long time ago that it wasn't going to happen on any track above 60MPH so we better work on making the car safer because high speed wrecks are going to happen.
 
Spotter22 said:
And they watched speeds increase and Bobby Allison almost fly in to the stands.
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back in 87 @ 214 MPH and a massive wreck to the field afterwards also when they ran over the debris at high speed. Interesting the changes afterwards over the years with roof flaps, safer barriers, tethered parts so they don't fly everywhere stronger and higher fencing interliners inside the tires and they over the years have kept the speeds below 214. It is entirely possible Nascar will make some highly publicized changes after Newman was injured. It will never be enough for some and that's ok. Newman himself has been highly critical about the Super Speedways over the years.
 
StandOnIt said:
back in 87 @ 214 MPH and a massive wreck to the field afterwards also when they ran over the debris at high speed. Interesting the changes afterwards over the years with roof flaps, safer barriers, tethered parts so they don't fly everywhere stronger and higher fencing interliners inside the tires and they over the years have kept the speeds below 214. It is entirely possible Nascar will make some highly publicized changes after Newman was injured. It will never be enough for some and that's ok. Newman himself has been highly critical about the Super Speedways over the years.
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It will never be enough for some, I'll tell you Id rather be Ryan Newman in that car then standing in the grandstand with a beer in my hand watching a car come over the fence.
 
BobbyFord said:
Pack racing is unsafe. They wad up half of the field at Daytona and Talladega every year.
They need to either reconfigure they tracks to eliminate the pack racing or retire the two tracks altogether.
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Not sure "pack racing" was the cause of Newman's accident. When it happened, it wasn't a side-by-side thing. Usually when a pack wreck happens, most of the cars are are going at speed in relatively the same direction. It's the cars further back that don't slow when they can -- some do and some don't that cause that hard hit (I'm not talking about LaJoie, he was too close to be able to slow down enough or correct.) I did see a couple cars coming through the accident that were at speed and were far enough back to be slowing. The yellow was already out so they wouldn't pick up positions anyway.

But yes, pack racing has more accidents -- just not convinced pack accidents are the problem. There are a lot if tracks where the top five could be running 180+ and the scenario could happen.
 
Newman’s crash could have happened at Fontana or Michigan. The issue isn’t pack racing, it’s that he got airborne and drilled in the driver’s side window while he was in that position.

Pack racing has problems but the problem here is that we need to keep the cars on the ground.
 
The Nature Boy said:
Newman’s crash could have happened at Fontana or Michigan. The issue isn’t pack racing, it’s that he got airborne and drilled in the driver’s side window while he was in that position.

Pack racing has problems but the problem here is that we need to keep the cars on the ground.
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he got hit in the side that launched him up and over and LaJoie came along. That can happen on any track, but that has been dramatically reduced over the years. I was thinking after watching many cars flat spinning last year that those cars would have been rolling and flying a few years back..like 20.
 
JerryF said:
Not sure "pack racing" was the cause of Newman's accident. When it happened, it wasn't a side-by-side thing. Usually when a pack wreck happens, most of the cars are are going at speed in relatively the same direction. It's the cars further back that don't slow when they can -- some do and some don't that cause that hard hit (I'm not talking about LaJoie, he was too close to be able to slow down enough or correct.) I did see a couple cars coming through the accident that were at speed and were far enough back to be slowing. The yellow was already out so they wouldn't pick up positions anyway.

But yes, pack racing has more accidents -- just not convinced pack accidents are the problem. There are a lot if tracks where the top five could be running 180+ and the scenario could happen.
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There are a lot of tracks where it COULD happen but there are two tracks where it consistently DOES happen.
 
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