Is there ever enough safety?

Safety has always been at the top of the priority list for all sanctioning bodies of auto racing. Many, many safety features have been created and implemented following crashes and deaths.

The death June 12 of Jason Leffler will bring about more discussion. We enjoy seeing fast cars battling it out like Gladiators.The cars the shields for the humans within.

All racing is risky, and drivers know that getting into the car each time – stock cars, open wheel cars, dragsters, hobby cars and carts. The potential for serious injury and death is always there. And that's not just in racecars, but in all motorized vehicles.  

Any time you strap yourself into an open cockpit, I think the chance of serious injury or death increases. Your protection is a helmet and a roll bar, added to your restraint system.At least in the stocks, you have a closed capsule for a little more protection. 

NASCAR SAFER Barrier

Head restraints became required equipment after the death of Dale Earnhardt. SAFER barriers were created to soften the impacts, although drivers say all hits are hard ones. Jeff Gordon crashed between areas of SAFER barriers and talk turned to making the entire outside of tracks the cushioned fiberglass behind reinforced steel beams. The softer walls were developed at the University of Nebraska and embraced by NASCAR and installed in tracks around the country.

When you watch NASCAR on television and see camera angles showing the wall and stickers for the race sponsor on the floating interiors, that’s a SAFER barrier.

After the last time Ryan Newman saw a windshield and roof full of Kurt Busch, the Purdue engineering grad went on a rampage over safety. He already has one chassis bar named for him.

At the NASCAR Research and Development Center, they study crashes and work to make racing safer for the drivers, crews and fans. It’s their job. And the building is filled with engineers and a dozen patents for safety featured created there in Concord, N.C.

Each car on the NASCAR track has a little blue box inserted by an official at the start of every race. If you watch them lean into the cars with something in their hands, that’s what it is. The box records everything and is downloaded at the R&D Center to review following crashes.

Tom Gideon, NASCAR Director of Safety says they learn many things each time. So, what did he learn from Denny Hamlin’s crash where the star’s back injury kept him out of the car for weeks? “We learned a lot,” he said. When pressed about what exactly he learned, he smiled and replied, “a lot.”

Will that crash yield more safety improvements? I feel fairly certain there will be.

In May, attendees to the Official NASCAR Members Club annual All-Star Fan Experience toured the R&D Center, not open to the general public. Gideon was a wealth of information and explanation.

Tom Gideon explains safety bars in the Generation 6 cars

Showing the “Newman Bar” on a cutaway chassis, he also pointed out reinforcements named for Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, and how they intersect to protect the driver. The Newman Bar is the newest and implemented with the Generation 6 car introduced this season.

Another safety feature added was a reinforced windshield for all Cup and Nationwide cars at tracks more than 2-miles long and in the Truck series on super speedways, Gideon told the group.

The windshield can withstand a 200 mph projectile without penetration, yet the driver can be accessed by safety crews with a drill or saw. Made of layered polycarbonate, Gideon showed a test windshield where a weight was cannon shot and it bowed inward, but didn’t crack through. He said you have to protect the driver, yet be able to drill or saw into it to access the driver if necessary. Unfortunately for the group, it was within the proprietary area of the center, and no photography is allowed.

Every wreck, at any level of professional racing yields information and is the impetus for more research, more engineering and more safety.

Will it ever be enough?

As long and drivers are willing to strap themselves into machines and drive for sport at speeds up to 200 miles per hour, no.