SAFER RacinDeals
DRIVING THE WHELEN: Steve Park’s Winston Cup career is seriously affected
when he’s t-boned while driving the #31 Busch car. Now on Friday night Johnny
Benson gets some ribs broken while driving the same car and sat out the race
with Joe Nemechek driving. It also looks as if Park will be getting the boot
from DEI because he’s not performing.
Wonder if either of them think the Busch experience was worth it?
Obviously Casey Atwood doesn’t think it’s worth the risk to drive in another
series. He was originally supposed to return to the Fairgrounds Speedway at
Nashville and drive a Late Model this Saturday, but after Benson’s problems,
he’s decided to just come and sign autographs.
IMPACT ABSORPTION: Wait a minute. I thought the "conventional"
wisdom of the press said that NASCAR wasn’t doing enough about safety, and the
only reason they started doing anything at all was because of the flack they got
after Dale Earnhardt was killed.
So, how do they explain that since 2000 NASCAR was involved in the
development of the so-called soft walls that were debuted at Indianapolis Motor
Speedway last week?
ANOTHER PANACEA: On the other hand, just as head and neck restraints are not
the panacea they were made out to be, I don’t think soft walls are either. Some
tracks are taking a wait-and-see attitude, which is as it should be. But other
tracks are jumping on board just as fast as they can. New Hampshire, which
"doesn’t have a problem," is eager to install the new devices. [This
paragraph was written Saturday, May 4. The paragraph below was started on
Tuesday].
WALL 2 3,
DRIVERS 0: Wow, those "soft" walls
at Indy are really something. With two three real-world tests,
here are some observations.
- Two drivers
have hit the wall and suffered broken bones in their back (PJ Jones has a
fracture of the C-6 vertebrae; Robbie McGehee sustained small fractures to
his upper spine and lower left leg). - One driver hit the wall and suffered a concussion.
- Debris from the walls scattered across the track after
both crashes.
Obviously the important observation is that there are now two
drivers who won’t be running in the Indy 500 due to these injuries, and a third
who hasn’t been cleared to drive as I write this on Thursday night. The question
has to be asked, "Would the drivers have sustained any injuries if they’d
hit the concrete wall directly?" And if the answer to that is
"no," then the walls need to
be removed before any more drivers get seriously hurt.
I realize that this question is more rhetorical than
anything, because it’s simply impossible to know the outcome of a crash that
didn’t happen (although I’m guessing that they can take the telemetry data from
the car and run it through a computer simulation with and without the wall and
see what happens). However, if the cure is worse than the disease, then
something is wrong.
The other concern is that in a race situation, with debris
from the walls scattering across the track, another wreck might result when
drivers run over it. It looked like the construction of these walls would
eliminate this issue, but so far it hasn’t. One has to
wonder how many laps of the Indy 500 will be run under yellow in order to
replace these walls? And if they can even be replaced while cars are on the
track?
TIME TO RETIRE: With Ricky Rudd using the
"R" word this week, that got to me to thinking about who should
retire. So here’s my list of nominees who I think should hang up their helmet at
the end of this year.
- Ricky Rudd. If he’s already thinking about it, then
he’s lost his focus. - Mark Martin. If you’re my driver, you fight for
position. You don’t "move over" and let the guy behind you pass. I
think Martin might have one or two more wins in him, but as far as a
championship goes, his time has passed. - Terry Labonte. Being in a substandard team for the last
few years has taken away his edge. Maybe he should be the new driver of the
#25. - Bill Elliott. Yeah, he won a race last year. We have a
saying here in the south: even a blind pig gets an acorn every now and then. - Brett Bodine. Own it, or drive it; not
both. The term owner/driver nowadays is an oxymoron. - Hut Stricklin. Enough said.
- Jeff Gordon. With no wins in nearly 20 races, he’s
clearly over the hill. - Kyle Petty. See #5.
Note: one of the above is a tongue-in-cheek comment. The rest
are just my opinion (as is everything else on this site that I write).
THANKS, BUT NO THANKS: One has to wonder if the non-ISC tracks are
feeling threatened by NASCAR regarding the new TRAC sanctioning body. SMI, who
under the guise of one of their shareholders is suing NASCAR, certainly doesn’t
feel threatened. They’re hosting 10 or so races sanctioned by TRAC next year.
But this week comes word that the folks out at Nashville Superspeedway (i.e.
Dover Motorsports) have declined an offer to hold a couple of races at the
track. What possible reason could there be to not have a race than intimidation
from NASCAR? Or maybe the rumors of ISC buying Dover Motortsports are true, and
Dover doesn’t want to muddy the waters by signing a contract to host
"alien" races next year. Either way, it doesn’t make sense that a
track owner would turn down a revenue generating idea.
EARNHARDT IS GONE: The ripples from Dale Earnhardt’s death continue 15 months
afterwards. We’ve seen that Kevin Harvick’s performance has tanked, probably
because he’s not Dale Earnhardt. And now Earnhardt’s own cars are in the midst
of turmoil. The only safe driver at DEI appears to be Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who
apparently has an ownership interest in DEI. It’s pretty obvious that there’s a
pecking order at DEI, just like there’s a pecking order at Hendrick Motorsports.
And to expect the guys at the bottom end of the order to perform as good as the
one at the top is unrealistic. But I guess that’s why I’m not a team owner.
QUOTE OF THE YEAR NOMINEE: "You don’t need a restrictor plate to
have the big one." – Mike Joy during the Busch race broadcast on May 3,
2002.
SEAL OF DISAPPROVAL: What can you say about Richmond that the drivers
didn’t already say? It was a lousy race.
WE TELL YOU WHAT TO THINK: Tony Stewart needs a dose of reality. After
becoming the third driver this year to win a race after changing an engine and
starting at the rear, he seems to think that the news media plants things in
fans’ heads. "You guys are the ones who plant the theories in (race fans’)
heads to begin with," Stewart said.
Uh, Tony. After Sterling won, I noted it. After Kenseth won, I noted it. Now
I’m noting it here after you won: drivers who change engines have an advantage
over those who don’t. That’s something that just can’t be denied.
And I didn’t need the "media" to tell me what to think. Despite
what you think, race fans are intelligent enough to see these things and come to
their own conclusion. I certainly don’t need any news organization to tell me
what to think. And I definitely don’t need a driver telling me either.