Hard Hits at Watkins Glen

There were several extremely hard hits today at Watkins Glen that thankfully had all drivers walking away. Certainly we'll see additional SAFER Barriers there next year. That area coming off the final turn has always seemed too confining. The cars today were bouncing from one side to the other in that tight and narrow area like a pinball machine. Reminds me a lot of what used to happen on the old Richmond layout, with ARMCO on both sides of a narrow straight and no where for cars to go if there were a spin. Seems to me that area needs to be opened up and widened from the barrier on one side to the barrier on the other. Everyone seemed glad to have the pea gravel traps removed and those areas paved over, but the cars are carrying tremendous speed into those tire barriers and hitting the tires with devastating force.There were some very fortunate drivers today, thank goodness. It'll be interesting to see what remedies are made in those areas.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

Something needs to be done for sure Dave. With the speeds these cars are generating, even in the slower sections of the racetrack, a hit on the guardrail is still a hard hit as compared to Infineon, where the cars are braking to 30-50 MPH through most of the corners, giving the cars less momentum going into and coming out of a corner. I know we've been talking a lot about J.D. McDuffie this weekend, and although they didn't so much as mention the anniversary on the telecast- the hits today should serve as a reminder to the track officials of the sheer danger this track presents to the drivers even now. I cringe to think what the headlines might be this afternoon had safety advances not been made in these cars since 1991.

A clip example of one of today's hits:

I'd rather have SAFER Barrier.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Listening to Marcos with his Australian/British accent and picturing all of those walking wounded drivers leaving Watkins Glen after today's race, I was reminded of this scene:

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"