Oct 23, 2006

NASCAR and Safety

The issue of safety in NASCAR is something we have written about in this column numerous times before. Now it has reared its head again in a new book from former NASCAR Cup champion Bill Elliott, and the news is not good. In the book Awesome Bill from Dawsonville: My Life in NASCAR, Elliott accuses the sanctioning body of playing fast-and-loose with the safety of its drivers, a theme we have repeatedly brought up in this space. The general tone of NASCAR's response to the safety question seems to be "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," which, in this context, means if no one is getting killed we don't have to worry about it. Sadly, that's just the type of mindset NASCAR had before the tragic and quite likely preventable death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001. And it appears that, according to Elliott's book, that kind of mindset prevails today.

In the book Elliott criticizes NASCAR for sitting on its hands after drivers Tony Roper, Adam Petty, and Kenny Irwin died in racetrack crashes. Though technology existed at the times of their deaths that could have mitigated the severity of their injuries, NASCAR was essentially silent on the issue.

"No one called for investigations or softer walls, or HANS devices when these drivers died," Elliott wrote, according to a report by the Associated Press. "But when Dale Earnhardt died, NASCAR went full bore, head over heels on safety. We ought not only address incidents that kill stars.  Shame on NASCAR for letting a handful of good men die before finally addressing the problem after Dale died."

To its credit NASCAR did throttle up the safety valve in the wake of the Earnhardt tragedy, but one has to wonder if much of that reaction was for public relations purposes rather than for driver safety. This column raised the issue of racecar construction as a potential safety issue, and many engineers said the lack of "crush zones" in the typical NASCAR racer might have been a contributor to Earnhardt's death. But, apparently for cost reasons, that has not been addressed in the present generation of cars, and it doesn't appear to be addressed in the Car of Tomorrow program that is ongoing. NASCAR's mindset seems to be: if you want to drive in our series, you just have to take your chances.

We don't think that is good enough. Certainly racing is a dangerous and potentially deadly sport. Nothing can be done to remove all the risks to drivers, but we believe all reasonable efforts should be made to require that NASCAR racecars be designed and equipped in the safest manner possible. Further, the emergency medical attention available at each venue should be of the highest quality, trained and equipped to deal with the specialized trauma that a racing accident can cause. That's just common sense. We hope NASCAR gets Elliott's message.