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Some observations and comments following NASCAR's safety meeting with the teams at Indy practice. From RacingOne.
SAFER Barrier Draws Confidence
Shawn A. Akers
Senior Editor
Some drivers are thrilled about it, and some, well, didn’t really give it a second thought.
But one thing’s for sure: The new SAFER barrier at Indianapolis Motor Speedway should give Winston Cup drivers a bit more piece of mind when they return to the hallowed track next month for the Brickyard 400.
The SAFER barrier (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) system, in essence “soft walls,” is stacks of four rectangular steel tubes welded into modules 20 feet long and 38 ½ inches high, and is then backed by several inches of polystyrene foam. It covers 4,240 feet of the track’s outside wall, and 1,060 feet in each turn of the 2.5-mile venue.
The barrier was put in place in May in preparation for the Indianapolis 500, and slight modifications have been made since for the August NASCAR race. NASCAR teams were at the Brickyard this week to test, and for the most part, the new technology brought about a positive reaction.
“I didn’t even notice it, but I’m glad it’s there,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Tuesday.
“I hope I don’t have to test it, but I think it’s great that we have them (soft walls) here,” said Dale Jarrett, driver of the No. 88 UPS Ford. “This is a place, with our stock cars, that you’re running over 200 miles an hour down into these corners, and usually when we hit here, it’s extremely hard with a big impact.
“So, I like the idea of what we have here. NASCAR and everyone working in this area has done a good job helping us get to this point. I know there is still a lot of work to do so that it can be beneficial to us at other racetracks, but it’s nice to know that we’re coming to a place where it has been tested and I feel very comfortable with what they have.”
Fellow Ford driver Kurt Busch also praised NASCAR’s efforts as well as the efforts of officials at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I’m very comfortable with this,” Busch said. “NASCAR has made the right steps in hiring professionals in the business of safety. Whether it’s the mechanics of it, the fireproofing of it, the barriers we’re running into or the pieces that are on the car, there are different percentages that we’ve taken that takes away the blow as far as taking care of that egg in the basket.
“NASCAR has done the right things. We’ve done stuff to incorporate things inside the racecar and we’ve done things to incorporate things outside the racecar now, so it’s just a matter of time before we’re running into soft walls instead of concrete walls.
“(IMS President) Tony George has always been an innovator of safety and in taking care of driver out there on the racetrack. NASCAR feels the same way, and with the way everything has progressed, it’s going to end up being the best of both worlds for open wheel and stock car racing. Everybody is making the right steps and it’s just a matter of time before everything is perfect.”
Ever since the death of Dale Earnhardt at Daytona last February, NASCAR has stepped up its involvement in the issue of safety on the racetrack and on pit-road. The mandate of both the HANS and Hutchens devices (head and neck restraints) was one of the first major steps taken in the implementation of new safety procedures.
New and safer seats for the drivers have been developed and are still being researched by many companies. The mandate of helmets and firesuits for the pit crews received a great deal of attention, and new safety belt and restraint system requirements and rules were put into place by NASCAR earlier this year.
For the second straight year, NASCAR held a safety meeting (on Tuesday), which met with, for the most part, driver approval.
“I actually went to dinner with (crew chief) Mike (Beam) and we talked about it (the meeting) and all of us mentioned how nice it is to have that open forum and that continuation of discussion,” said Ricky Craven, driver of the No. 32 Tide Ford. “It was very good because it gives everybody a chance to meet and explore all of the things going on right now in our sport from a safety standpoint.
“I came away from it knowing that they’re exploring a lot of different areas. They confirmed a lot of the things that we’ve done. The PPI (Motorsports) seat has touched on some of the issues relating to the seats and how the head and shoulder supports need to be tied together. We all know now that the seat needs to be very, very strong and again, we capture that with this seat (the PPI seat).”
“There’s always something for us to learn and it’s (the meeting) not only interesting but beneficial to everyone to know what and how much is going on behind the scenes because we normally only hear bits and pieces,” Jarrett said. “To have these gentlemen actively looking for safer ways for our sport to operate, it’s nice. And for them to enlighten us in speaking terms that we can understand is also a big help because I’m sure a lot of the things they work on are a lot more complicated than what most of us could comprehend.
“One of the things they touched on was the soft walls. They talked about why the process takes longer. You generally would think that putting something up there that’s softer has got to be better, but that’s not necessarily the case. They’re (NASCAR) looking for perfection, and we should appreciate that. After a car hits at 145 or 150 miles an hour, they want it to bounce back and be the same. They don’t want it to be hampered at all even for the rest of that race, and that was pretty amazing to me – that they’re gonna be able to get that. They’ve narrowed that margin so much in a short period of time that they’re gonna make that happen, and that was pretty incredible.”
There was talk centering around the use of the “soft wall” technology at New Hampshire for next weekend’s Winston Cup event, but officials at NHIS have held off on using it there until more research is done.
SAFER Barrier Draws Confidence
Shawn A. Akers
Senior Editor
Some drivers are thrilled about it, and some, well, didn’t really give it a second thought.
But one thing’s for sure: The new SAFER barrier at Indianapolis Motor Speedway should give Winston Cup drivers a bit more piece of mind when they return to the hallowed track next month for the Brickyard 400.
The SAFER barrier (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) system, in essence “soft walls,” is stacks of four rectangular steel tubes welded into modules 20 feet long and 38 ½ inches high, and is then backed by several inches of polystyrene foam. It covers 4,240 feet of the track’s outside wall, and 1,060 feet in each turn of the 2.5-mile venue.
The barrier was put in place in May in preparation for the Indianapolis 500, and slight modifications have been made since for the August NASCAR race. NASCAR teams were at the Brickyard this week to test, and for the most part, the new technology brought about a positive reaction.
“I didn’t even notice it, but I’m glad it’s there,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Tuesday.
“I hope I don’t have to test it, but I think it’s great that we have them (soft walls) here,” said Dale Jarrett, driver of the No. 88 UPS Ford. “This is a place, with our stock cars, that you’re running over 200 miles an hour down into these corners, and usually when we hit here, it’s extremely hard with a big impact.
“So, I like the idea of what we have here. NASCAR and everyone working in this area has done a good job helping us get to this point. I know there is still a lot of work to do so that it can be beneficial to us at other racetracks, but it’s nice to know that we’re coming to a place where it has been tested and I feel very comfortable with what they have.”
Fellow Ford driver Kurt Busch also praised NASCAR’s efforts as well as the efforts of officials at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I’m very comfortable with this,” Busch said. “NASCAR has made the right steps in hiring professionals in the business of safety. Whether it’s the mechanics of it, the fireproofing of it, the barriers we’re running into or the pieces that are on the car, there are different percentages that we’ve taken that takes away the blow as far as taking care of that egg in the basket.
“NASCAR has done the right things. We’ve done stuff to incorporate things inside the racecar and we’ve done things to incorporate things outside the racecar now, so it’s just a matter of time before we’re running into soft walls instead of concrete walls.
“(IMS President) Tony George has always been an innovator of safety and in taking care of driver out there on the racetrack. NASCAR feels the same way, and with the way everything has progressed, it’s going to end up being the best of both worlds for open wheel and stock car racing. Everybody is making the right steps and it’s just a matter of time before everything is perfect.”
Ever since the death of Dale Earnhardt at Daytona last February, NASCAR has stepped up its involvement in the issue of safety on the racetrack and on pit-road. The mandate of both the HANS and Hutchens devices (head and neck restraints) was one of the first major steps taken in the implementation of new safety procedures.
New and safer seats for the drivers have been developed and are still being researched by many companies. The mandate of helmets and firesuits for the pit crews received a great deal of attention, and new safety belt and restraint system requirements and rules were put into place by NASCAR earlier this year.
For the second straight year, NASCAR held a safety meeting (on Tuesday), which met with, for the most part, driver approval.
“I actually went to dinner with (crew chief) Mike (Beam) and we talked about it (the meeting) and all of us mentioned how nice it is to have that open forum and that continuation of discussion,” said Ricky Craven, driver of the No. 32 Tide Ford. “It was very good because it gives everybody a chance to meet and explore all of the things going on right now in our sport from a safety standpoint.
“I came away from it knowing that they’re exploring a lot of different areas. They confirmed a lot of the things that we’ve done. The PPI (Motorsports) seat has touched on some of the issues relating to the seats and how the head and shoulder supports need to be tied together. We all know now that the seat needs to be very, very strong and again, we capture that with this seat (the PPI seat).”
“There’s always something for us to learn and it’s (the meeting) not only interesting but beneficial to everyone to know what and how much is going on behind the scenes because we normally only hear bits and pieces,” Jarrett said. “To have these gentlemen actively looking for safer ways for our sport to operate, it’s nice. And for them to enlighten us in speaking terms that we can understand is also a big help because I’m sure a lot of the things they work on are a lot more complicated than what most of us could comprehend.
“One of the things they touched on was the soft walls. They talked about why the process takes longer. You generally would think that putting something up there that’s softer has got to be better, but that’s not necessarily the case. They’re (NASCAR) looking for perfection, and we should appreciate that. After a car hits at 145 or 150 miles an hour, they want it to bounce back and be the same. They don’t want it to be hampered at all even for the rest of that race, and that was pretty amazing to me – that they’re gonna be able to get that. They’ve narrowed that margin so much in a short period of time that they’re gonna make that happen, and that was pretty incredible.”
There was talk centering around the use of the “soft wall” technology at New Hampshire for next weekend’s Winston Cup event, but officials at NHIS have held off on using it there until more research is done.