Subscribe to this blog's feed« Football season | Main | Bristol »
What a crash
For anyone who was watching the race on Monday you know what I’m about to say. The race was pretty good and I don’t mind seeing Tony win but nobody was talking about the finish when the race was over. The wreck that happened between the 77,24 and 31 was one that you don’t see very often. The 9 car got loose and sent the 77 into the side wall. At that particular point in the track the retaining wall is angled back into the track. So when the 9 car pushed the 77 into the wall the 77 came flying back onto the track right in the middle of oncoming traffic. After the wreck the Jeff Gordon said he saw what was going on in front of him and tried to speed up and get thru it but the 77 came across way faster than expected. The crash happened near pit road so we all got an up close view of it and it sounds a lot worse when your close to the action rather than watching a replay on TV. The good news is that all the guys in our race shop should be proud of the car they built and that it could hold up to a crash like that. As a driver I would be happy to see a fellow driver walk away from an accident like that and know that Nascar is doing a good job on keeping driver safety where it needs to be. Well, that s about all for now and it’s off to Michigan.
August 13, 2009 | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451bce769e20120a4ef47fd970b
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference What a crash:
Comments
No kidding! If you don't know much about racing and watch the 2/01 Earnhardt crash at Daytona, the Edwards crash at Talladega, Bobby Allison's career-ender at Pocono (I think) and the one at the Glen, and were then asked, "Which ones led to significant injuries?" I bet 90% would point to Edwards and the Glen. I saw the Earnhardt crash last night and it still amazes me that he died. Like you say, safety has come a long ways.
Posted by: Doug in CA | Aug 13, 2009 4:54:03 PM
All the crews of the cars that Doug mentioned should be proud of their work. The new cars seem to be much safer. Also, the SAFER barriers play a big part in protecting the drivers. If not for these facts, I think several drivers would have been severely injured. We should all applaud NASCAR's efforts to protect the drivers.
Posted by: SmokeFan | Aug 13, 2009 10:17:01 PM
Much kudos to the drive for a safer driver environment. It's just sad that it accelerated after Sr.'s incident.
The Glen needs to reangle that tire barrier because if it's going to act like a giant Pitchback, they need to redirect the cars somewhere else. Maybe they need to consider a moat of gravel just in front of the barrier to help slow impact and slow deflection.
I'm no expert though on these things, so there might be better ideas out there!
Posted by: Bruce Simmons | Aug 14, 2009 10:23:54 AM
Bruce, you may have something there. It's the same place where Leffler crashed during practice the day before, and the same place where Leffler (the guy has no luck) crashed during last year's Busch race. I was checking to see if that was where J.D. McDuffie died, but it wasn't. His crash was at the end of the backstretch, and led to the installation of the "bus stop" to slow the cars coming into that turn.
The only issue is that there doesn't seem to be that much room between the track and the tires. The other turn where there's a gravel pit is pretty wide - plenty of room to burrow into the marbles.
Posted by: Doug in CA | Aug 14, 2009 11:12:49 AM
I think all you guys hit on the fact that the mechanics back at the shop should be proud of what they did. Some of these guys build many cars a year and you never know when the one you weld is going to be the one saving someones life.
Posted by: trent | Aug 14, 2009 8:18:16 PM
Post a comment
Advertisements
