This article is a few days old from a site called the crewchiefsclub, but Larry gives a good explanation of some the safety features at the Glen.
Watkins Glen isn't 'soft' on safety
By: Larry McReynolds
August 8, 2002
Obviously, we can’t have "soft wall" barriers in place for this weekend’s race at Watkins Glen, but the road course has taken steps toward safer racing in the 11 years that have passed since driver J.D. McDuffie's death at the Glen.
Back in 1991, we entered turn 9 at about 170 to 180 miles per hour, and if you missed that corner, it could be a very costly mistake. McDuffie was killed when he crashed in this corner. So to prevent similar accidents, track officials have added the Inner Loop turns 5 through 8, which are linked together to slow cars down before turn 9.
Concrete, foam slow, lessen impact of crashes
The Glen used to have problems keeping the asphalt on the track so they added concrete in the groove on the straight.
Also, they have some foam barriers. Most of the barriers around this track are the old-style guardrails, like the one Steve Park hit at Pocono a couple of weeks ago. They have some give to them, but they can tear up a racecar. In some of the 90-degree corners foam serves as a buffer in front of the guardrails so if a driver doesn’t make it in the turn, he won’t tear up his car. The foam will cushion his spin.
In some areas where cars can go off the track at a high rate of speed, the track has pea gravel pits, which slow the cars down dramatically and safely. I was first exposed to gravel pits in Suzuka, Japan when we held exhibition races there in 1996 and 1997.
Since we race in rain or shine at road courses, there are special safety considerations this week. Goodyear has come up with a rain tire for the road courses. The only time we’ve actually had to use these tires was in Japan. There are a few more additions to the cars when we race in potential rain conditions. We have to have a windshield wiper and a rear brake light in the middle of the back window. There's also a defogging system for the front windshield. We’ve never actually had to use these items in a points race, but we do go to Watkins Glen knowing that we will qualify and race regardless of the weather.
Safety fever: Catch it!
Watkins Glen has taken steps toward safer racing, and after the successful debut of soft walls at Indianapolis, between now and the 2003 season, many tracks should follow the lead of these trailblazers and install soft walls. I would hope that soft walls could be in place for the final race of this season at Homestead, where you enter the corner with simply no banking to hold the car.
When we saw how hard Kurt Busch and Geoffrey Bodine hit these walls at Indy, it was pretty clear that they can do the job with a 3400-pound car, and it barely took any time to make repairs to the barriers after being hit.