{"id":39336,"date":"2017-05-09T08:07:29","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T15:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=39336"},"modified":"2017-05-09T08:07:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T15:07:29","slug":"nascar-safety-innovations-continue-to-save-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nascar-safety-innovations-continue-to-save-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Safety Innovations Continue to Save Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NASCAR
While it wasn\u2019t as spectacular as some recent crashes, the crash yesterday was scary. Here we see AJ Allmendinger sliding on his side and Chase Elliot\u2019s car beginning to go airborne. All images from official race videos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did you watch yesterday\u2019s Cup race at Talladega? If so, you witnessed another of what the pundits call \u201cThe Big One.\u201d Being honest, it\u2019s one of the things that draw huge crowds to both Talladega and Daytona – the big wreck that takes out almost half the field in spectacular fashion. Yesterday\u2019s race didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yesterday\u2019s GEICO 400 was Relatively Caution-Free<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
This video shows Chase Elliot\u2019s #24 still airborne. You can see the roof and hood flaps which are designed to prevent the car from going airborne. However, you can also see Joey Logano\u2019s #22 underneath Elliot\u2019s car. Another car hit Elliot\u2019s when he was sideways, giving the car the lift required to overcome the drag and go airborne. When the car is sideways or backwards, those roof flaps do work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The race yesterday only had a few cautions, two 0f which were planned from the beginning of the season – the cautions after the first two stages. Although the new rules package includes the reduced-downforce aero package, there were only a few cautions for wrecks, only one of which included more than a few cars.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Allmendinger ended up sitting on his roof for a few minutes while track safety workers carefully righted his car.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were a few drivers who got a little loose due to \u201clove taps\u201d or an \u201caero-loose\u201d condition and brushed the wall. Those are expected no matter what track they\u2019re on. Yesterday\u2019s big one was a wreck that caused damage to 16 of the remaining 34 cars that were on the lead lap when it happened.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Drafting is an Inherently Dangerous Game of Inches<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
This is the moment yesterday\u2019s wreck started. Allmendinger has gotten Elliot loose and bumps him again, turning him.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Drafting: You and I have probably done it on the highway in our personal cars more times than we can count. It\u2019s a great way to save gas on longer trips. Yet to do it correctly (getting yourself inside the wake turbulence of the vehicle in front of you) is illegal because it\u2019s dangerous. You have far less time to react if a driver in front of you has to \u201ccheck up\u201d in order to avoid the vehicle in front of them.<\/p>\n

Yesterday\u2019s race was proof positive that drafting is a game of inches – inches off the rear bumper of the driver in front of you, inches from the door of the car next to you and inches from the wall. All at 180 MPH plus.<\/p>\n

More importantly, when you\u2019re bump-drafting, you\u2019ve got to be careful of where you are on the track and how your bumper lines up when you give the car in front of you a push. Yesterday\u2019s race<\/a> highlighted this perfectly. AJ Allmendinger gave Chase Elliot a small push that got him out of shape and then gave him a bit more of a push that turned him. \u201cThe Big One\u201d ensued, a wreck that ended up with AJ sliding down the track for a couple of hundred yards on his driver door and top. It also had Chase\u2019s car doing its imitation of a flying car.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite Severity of Wreck, Everybody Walked Away Unscathed<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Kyle Busch hits the infield wall doing, according to FoxTrax, almost 100 MPH, lifting the rear of the car off the ground.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The wreck created total carnage on the track and brought out the red flag for more than 20 minutes while track safety workers cleaned up the mess. Danica Patrick hit a wall protuberance almost head-on, similar to Kyle Busch\u2019s XFINITY crash<\/a> in Daytona in 2015.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Because of the lack of a SAFER Barrier and the \u201canti-intrusion\u201d panels under his feet, Busch suffered breaks to both lower legs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Luckily for Danica, she hit the SAFER Barrier instead of a solid wall the way Busch did and was able to give her boyfriend, race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a big kiss in Victory Lane after the race. In fact, thanks to NASCAR\u2019s safety innovations over the years, everyone walked away with nothing more than one driver complaining that he was limping because his heel was burned due to heat transmitted through the floorboards from the exhaust.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last Year\u2019s Rules Package Would Have Seen Drivers Injured in Wreck<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Carnage ensues after Allmendinger gets into Elliot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASCAR introduced<\/a> what they call \u201canti-intrusion panels\u201d under the pedals at the two restrictor plate tracks as a requirement this year. Last year it was optional for the two summer races at the tracks. If the car builders for Danica\u2019s number 10 hadn\u2019t incorporated them into the car, she most likely wouldn\u2019t have just walked away from her wreck.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
This is the wreck that caused NASCAR to mandate the use of the HANS device. This is the minute we lost Dale Earnhardt, Sr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chase Elliot would most likely have also suffered leg injuries from his wreck. Not only was Chase\u2019s car pushed up into the air, he was hit by another drive nose to nose before he went flying. Joey Logano\u2019s number 22 hit AJ\u2019s car hard enough, from the looks of it, that the HANS (Head And Neck restraint System) device possibly saved his life as well.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
NASCAR hasn\u2019t ignored fan safety. This image shows the moment when Austin Dillon\u2019s #3 car hits the catch fence at Daytona during the 2015 Coke Zero 400. Fences of yesteryear were simple hurricane (chain link) fences which would have allowed the car to fly into the stands.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Remember, NASCAR mandated the HANS device for all drivers after the fatal wreck<\/a> of Dale Earnhardt Sr. at the 2001 Daytona 500. Danica\u2019s wreck, which arguably had more straight frontal impact energy than Senior\u2019s, probably also would have, at best, seriously injured her neck and back were it not for the HANS device she was wearing.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Dillon\u2019s car is completely destroyed after the wreck, but notice the driver capsule is intact.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Darrell Waltrip said it while they were analyzing the wreck yesterday during the red flag: \u201cMike (fellow announcer Mike Joy), my first race here, 1972, this is what I worried about. 19-\u2026.45 years ago and now here we are.\u201d As long as they keep racing on tracks like Daytona and Talladega, and NASCAR continues to allow bump-drafting, we\u2019re going to see wrecks like the one we had yesterday.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Despite going airborne, despite being stopped from a speed of about 170 MPH in less than 10 feet, Dillon walks away from his terrifying wreck.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

AJ and Chase could also very well have been killed if NASCAR hadn\u2019t mandated those monstrous wrap-around extensions on the seats as well. You hear Waltrip and Joy saying it quite a bit: \u201cHe hit the wall, but he didn\u2019t hit hard because he was already running up next to it when he hit it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
The car doesn\u2019t look to bad. The wreck didn\u2019t look too bad, but the angle and the speed at which Dale Sr. hit caused what is called a basilar skull fracture – basically, his spinal cord snapped where it exits the skull because his head was able to move too far forward to quickly while his neck and shoulders stayed relatively immobile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s basically the same principle behind the wrap-around head protection in the seats: Minimize the distance a driver\u2019s head can travel laterally before it runs into an immovable object (the seat extension or the roll cage). I can say with a fair amount of certainty that yesterday\u2019s wreck would have seen a number of ambulances leaving the track after the wreck to take drivers to local hospitals with severe blunt force trauma to the head. Did AJ and Chase walk away with headaches? I can almost guarantee they did, but they walked away, and that is thanks to the safety innovations NASCAR has made over the years.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
The catch-fence at Daytona International Raceway after Austin Dillon\u2019s wreck in the 2015 Coke Zero 400. Although severely damaged, it did its job and kept Dillon\u2019s car out of the stands. Without it, a number of fans would have died that day. As it was, only three fans suffered minor injuries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How do we end these big painful-looking wrecks? Easy – we end racing. That\u2019s not going to happen, though. It is\u00a0too much a part of our national psyche. Even those who aren\u2019t adrenaline junkies are adrenaline junkies in secret. We love the excitement of the racing. And yes, we love to see the wrecks. Hopefully, we just don\u2019t like to see the injuries that can be a part of these big wrecks. \u00a0What about you\u00a0– can you think of\u00a0anything else (besides smaller restrictor plates and higher gears for lower speeds) that NASCAR can do to further reduce the risks drivers face every time they hop in a car and race all-out?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you watch yesterday\u2019s Cup race at Talladega? If so, you witnessed another of what the pundits call \u201cThe Big One.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":39340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,5029],"tags":[3187,3749,4135,3054,682,1074,127,41,1632,2536],"class_list":["post-39336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-racing","tag-aj-allmendinger","tag-chase-elliot","tag-dale-earnhardt-sr","tag-danica-patrick","tag-kyle-busch","tag-mike-aguilar","tag-nascar","tag-news","tag-racing","tag-safety"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/AJ-Sideways.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-aes","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39336"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39358,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39336\/revisions\/39358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}