Dale Jr.'s incident brings to light what could have happened, if he had not gone to the doctor, but more importantly, reminds us all of the technology and safety innovations that we didn't have 15 years ago. Just think back to the late 90's, when there was a string of racing deaths that were blamed on the lack of safety. Within the period of 10 years, give or take a few, more drivers were killed than ever before. J.D McDuffie was an independent who made 653 unsuccessful attempts at a win, starting from 1963 to 1991 when he crashed at Watkins Glen. Something broke and his brakes failed as he was going 170 mph into a turn. His car flipped wildly into and over a tire barrier, coming to rest upside down atop the car of Jimmy Means. He died of major head injuries. Neil Bonnett, the fan favorite driver from Alabama, was coming out of retirement in 1994, when making his first practice lap for the Daytona 500, he lost control of his car and died on impact, because of head injuries. Just three days later, on February 14th 1994, the defending champion of the Goody's Dash series, Rodney Orr was killed in a crash, again during practice, and in the way Neil did.
We lost John Nemechek in 1997, when he was driving a truck series race at Homestead. His truck slammed into the wall on his side. He too would die from head injuries. In 2000, we first lost Adam Petty, the bright, young 4th generation driver of the Petty family. It was just over a month after his first and only Winston Cup start did Adam, during practice for a Busch race at New Hampshire, start to spin, over correct, and drive straight into the wall, head on. He was 19 and died instantly of a skull fracture. Almost two months to the day later, at the same track and the same turn, Kenny Irwin, driving a Winston Cup car number 42 had almost the same accident that took Adam Petty, and it took Kenny Irwin too, with the same skull fracture. Irwin was at one time called, "The next Jeff Gordon". After this race, NASCAR mandated restrictor plates for that track, but the idea was trashed after one race with them. They also mandated a column located kill switch, since both the Petty and Irwin wrecks were thought to have been caused by a stuck accelerator.
The racing family had to endure one more tragedy for the 2000 season. Tony Roper, a driver in the Craftsmen Truck Series, lost his life at Texas Motor Speedway. As he attempted to make a pass, his truck clipped bumpers with Steve Grissom in the tri-oval and Roper hit the wall driver side first. He passed away as a result of head injuries. To NASCAR and its fans, these drivers who all passed away doing something they loved was tragic, but NASCAR honestly didn't do anything much to protect more lives. Out of all I just mentioned, a kill switch was implemented. Six drivers perished in the top divisions, all from the same type of injury, but yet a kill switch was all that was done by a sport that was all for safety....
On the other hand, those of the lesser known NASCAR series, such as the modifieds and the sportsman divisions, were no better off. While the Sportsman cars raced at Charlotte, there were 3 deaths within 6 years; the last occurring in 1995, when a racer named Russell Phillips crashed roof first into the catch fence. The fence was like a big razor blade and just sheared the top off of his race car, resulting in death on impact. The next year, NASCAR DID mandate a bar that went across the windshield.
The point I'm trying to get at, is that there were no MAJOR safety innovations for all of these accidents during this 10 years. As far as I'm concerned, the real reason we have the safety and technology that we have today was the death of one of NASCAR's greatest stars, Dale Earnhardt, who on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, crashed into the turn 3 &4 wall, suffering major head injuries. He was killed instantly. SAFER barriers, as we know them today, were not yet available at the time of his death; there was a similar product designed by Smokey Yunick in the early 90's, but it still sat on the floor of his garage when he passed away in 2001. The HANS device started development in the mid to late 80's, and was available in the late 90's, but NASCAR never mandated it until AFTER Dale Earnhardt's death. I hate to say it, but NASCAR and its fans paid more attention to this than all the previous accidents I've mentioned.
Because of Dale's death, full-face helmets, head-and-neck-restraints, and SAFER Barrier walls were mandated for all drivers at all tracks. Just think, since 2001, of all the bad wrecks you've seen over and over, when the driver would just walk away. Take Carl Edwards' wreck from 2009 when he went into the fence at Talladega on the last lap, but climbed out and RAN to the finish line. (**Editor's note: Edwards was uninjured in that crash, but 8 spectators suffered varying degrees of injury caused by debris from the car making its way into the grandstand) Sure, drivers are most of the time, shaken up and scared, but when was the last time you've heard of a broken hand or broken anything, because of a NASCAR accident? The last fatality in NASCAR was in 2009, when a racer was killed in a Mexican road race in the NASCAR Mexico Series. And then of course, on this day a year ago, coincidentally, Dan Wheldon was killed in the Indy Car season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, when he too, suffered head injuries.
I look for more rules and regulations to come in the near future. And by near future, I mean in the next couple of weeks or beginning for the 2013 season in NASCAR competition. I honestly have no idea of what kind of rules they could mandate, but they need to do something, or else more injuries might occur.
-Cody Dinsmore
Email: cody7474@yahoo.com
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