Newman, NASCAR meet in aftermath of 'Dega crash
Meeting focused on improvements, testing, extrication
By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
November 6, 2009
06:26 PM EST
FORT WORTH, Texas -- The big wreck is over, the crumpled race cars have been loaded up and hauled off and the massive track in north Alabama has gone back into hibernation for another half a year. While the Sprint Cup tour has moved on from Talladega Superspeedway, the aftereffects of last weekend's accident involving Ryan Newman are still being felt.
Newman, who had to be cut out of his car after it flipped over and landed on its roof late in last Sunday's event, met with NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton and Sprint Cup director John Darby on Wednesday morning at the sport's Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. The Stewart-Haas driver had two items on his agenda -- his prolonged extrication from the race car, which took roughly 15 minutes, and the kind of airborne accident that put him in that position in the first place.
"From an aerodynamic standpoint, ultimately, our biggest thing is to keep the race cars on the ground," Newman said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, host of this weekend's NASCAR events. "Crashes have always been a part of racing. There are fans that like that. Sometimes that adds to extra excitement, don't get me wrong. When we can bounce off each other, get the car fixed, go back out and try to win a race, I understand that part of it. Keeping the race cars on the ground is how we keep the drivers, and especially the fans, safe."
NASCAR officials wouldn't discuss details of the meeting, other than to say it was positive.
"It was a good meeting," Darby said. "We explained a lot of things to Ryan, and Ryan took the time to walk us through step-by-step what he actually went through and felt as a driver, and that was good. At the end of the day, I think everything lined up pretty well."
It was the second consecutive Talladega race weekend involving a controversial airborne accident, and the second time this year a Sprint Cup driver has met with NASCAR officials over the issue. Carl Edwards met with unspecified NASCAR higher-ups in Daytona Beach, Fla., days after his car flew into the restraining fence at the end of Talladega's April race, a crash in which seven spectators were injured by debris.
Thankfully, Newman's car stayed out of the fence Sunday. But the driver still had concerns about why the vehicle lifted off to begin with, especially after seeing Mark Martin's car go into a roll during an accident a few laps later.
"I think there are for sure things that could be done and should be done based on what we saw, both [in] Mark's accident and my accident, [and] the spring accident with Carl," said Newman, who holds a degree in vehicle structural engineering from Purdue University. "Aerodynamically, there are things that need to be done to keep the cars on the ground. I said that six months ago. Six months is plenty of time to make those changes. The important thing is to make the right changes, to do the testing to the best of our capabilities with the tools that we have, meaning wind tunnels, modeling, things like that, to make the right difference."
That may already be occurring. In comments made to reporters the day after the Talladega race, Pemberton indicated that NASCAR was working on scheduling wind tunnel time to address the "high yaw" of the current Sprint Cup car on the 2.66-mile track. Friday at Texas, Darby said such studies are part of NASCAR's normal operating procedure.
"That's what we do," Darby said. "We do it every day. We don't just do it because the car got up in the air after Talladega. Our R&D Center is operational five days a week, 12 months a year. That's what they do everyday. So the answer to [potentially taking the cars to a wind tunnel] is yes. But as a result of [Talladega]? The answer is no. That's just what we do."
In the aftermath of Newman's crash, much speculation has centered around the Sprint Cup car's rear wing, and whether it provided the lift to send the car into the air. Pemberton said that wasn't the case, and that NASCAR has specifically tested the current vehicle in wind tunnels that allow the car to be spun around. And as Newman pointed out, there have been many airborne Talladega crashes involving cars with a rear spoiler instead of a wing.
"I don't know that it's the answer," he said. "As we've seen before, I believe it was Matt Kenseth's Nationwide crash, his car got airborne with a spoiler on the back of it. That's not the answer, that's not the fix. I've been part of crashes with spoilers on the back of them and a wing on the back of them, unfortunately. That's not the fix. Can it be a part of the fix? Yeah, potentially. Is it a better alternative in conjunction with other things you can do to the car? Maybe. Those are the things that NASCAR and the teams have to test collectively so that we can make it safer and better for the drivers and, like I said, more importantly, the fans."
It's unlikely to be a simple fix, given that cars have been going airborne in accidents at Talladega for years. Newman's crash "was no different than what we've seen for a good solid 15 years, if not more [at Talladega], and it's really hard to stop the cars from doing that when they get around like that," Martin said. Clearly, Newman believes that putting an end to airborne crashes at Talladega should be a priority.
"From an engineering standpoint, whatever we can do speed-wise and aerodynamically to keep the cars on the ground ... is what we need to focus on," said Newman, who requested the meeting with NASCAR in a telephone conversation with Darby on Sunday night. "There has been testing done. I learned some of that stuff on Wednesday morning talking to Mr. Darby and Mr. Pemberton, that they have tested. But I don't know that they have tested everything. I don't know that you can test everything. But obviously more testing needs to be done in order to make it safer for everybody."
Newman's other point of emphasis was his extrication from the car, which occurred after the vehicle was righted by a wrecker and the roof was cut off. It's not the first time Newman has spent a long time in his car waiting for relief -- following a 2003 crash at Watkins Glen, he sat in his vehicle for nearly two minutes before rescue crews even arrived, an incident that left the driver seething, and ignited debate over whether NASCAR needed dedicated safety crews like some open-wheel circuits have.
Newman said Friday that he was still sore from the impact of the crash, but as he sat upside down he never felt pushed down into his seat. He was, though, concerned about the way the roll cage was crushed, and believes there is some room for improvement as far as his extrication process was concerned.
"I want to make a point that I wasn't dissatisfied with the way I was taken out of the car," he said. "I just feel there were things that potentially could be done to make it easier for the next guy. That's my responsibility, because the next guy might be me again. You never know."
