NASCAR safety is an oxymoron

[rabbit]

But you already new that.

They were awfully late getting to Bobby Labonte's bar-b-que. :shakehead

[Railbird]

well son, it's like this

we had to get all them fellers back around to the yalla befor we could roll them reckers.

Did ya see how many times we almost got that fire out?

[rabbit]

Originally posted by Railbird
Did ya see how many times we almost got that fire out? Because they're just that good!

[JT265]

Now c'mon guys, don't be slaggin' them boys TOO hard.

Hell, everyone deserves time to eat their ice cream on a hot day, don't they?

[RTKar]

Originally posted by rabbit
But you already new that.

They were awfully late getting to Bobby Labonte's bar-b-que. :shakehead

Cars on fire make for good tv...higher ratings... I can hear Mike Helton..."No not, yet, not yet, not yet...ok go and put the fire out."

[chop456]

"I'm fine," Labonte said. "They just had a big incident there ahead of us. I thought I could make it to the outside. All the safety stuff worked pretty good and it took us a long time to get out, but it all worked the way it's supposed to."

It was the latest in a recent rash of fiery crashes from broken fuel lines.

"I wish they could do something about that," Labonte said.

[Dave99]

RTK, funny!

Speaking of safety, why doesn't NASCAR insist drivers enter pit road via T-3 instead of cutting across the track at T-4 and chopping off cars at speed?

And why is there no outside pitlane wall (at most tracks, anyway) to protect pit road's occupants from injury (or worse) due to a car sliding through the grass?

Having followed CART all these years makes me wonder, that's all. Too much to ask for or because it's just not necessary? Yet.

[Racewriter]

Originally posted by Dave99
And why is there no outside pitlane wall (at most tracks, anyway) to protect pit road's occupants from injury (or worse) due to a car sliding through the grass?



Because the number of cars that have slid into the pits and injured someone is small compared to the horrendous wrecks caused by cars that have hit inside walls close to the track. More walls = more blunt ends of walls.

The tracks where there are no walls are all tri-oval tracks, where the pits are not in close proximity to the racing surface. At tracks where the pits are close to the racing surface (Rockingham, Darlington, Pocono, Indy, etc.), there are walls.

[JoeBob]

NBC had a crew in Toronto to do a piece on the Simple Green Safety Team that was scheduled to be aired during the Pocono race. It will be interesting to see how that is received.

When CART had their event at TMS, one of the changes that CART paid for was the installation of a temporary wall seperating the race track from the pit lane. IIRC, they brought in some of the concrete barriers that had been used for for the Houston Street race, and set them up seperating pit lane from the track.

There's been a couple of incidents in the last year or two in NASCAR where cars have shot across the infield and hit the pit wall. Luckily, there haven't been any serious injuries, but IIRC, there have been some minor ones - mostly from people scurrying away when they saw the car coming.

If one of those crashes happened when pit stops were going on, it would be catastrophic.

[cart7]

You sometimes wonder if this kind of thing continues because it makes good show. These fuel tank fires make great 10pm news video. First you have the racing back to the yellow deal causing emergency crews to sit while the boys are legging it back to the yellow, meanwhile racer X is still in the car, hopefully conscience, trying to keep from getting well done.

On the yellow flags, if there's a gentlemans agreement amoung drivers to not race back to the yellow and now Helton is telling the guys to follow that agreement, why not change the rule? BTW, anybody know what the purpose of racing back was anyway?

And these fuel tank explosions are another problem. I guess it'll be a year or more before Nascar can come to some conclusion on the whole thing. :shakehead

[JoeBob]

At Daytona, Morgan McClure was penalized for having an "unapproved fuel cell container modification" According to Jayski:


Morgan McClure Motorsports will be penalized heavily today by NASCAR due to their fuel cell infraction last weekend at Daytona. Hearing a member of the Kodak crew inserted a air-pressure type device into the fuel cell of the #4 attempting to stretch it. The problem is he went too far and the fuel cell actually blew up like a balloon. Supposedly the fuel cell stretched so much that it bent the brackets which hold it in place. "It looked like the shape of a football," according to one person who got a glimpse of the fuel cell. NASCAR especially frowned on this since 1) it was a blatant rules violations and 2) attempting to enlarge the fuel cell could have resulted in an explosion.(

As for racing back to the yellow - supposedly Mike Helton told the drivers last week that if they didn't follow the "Gentleman's Agreement," NASCAR would make a rule on it. (Which makes you wonder why they don't just make the rule in the first place.) Then he told the media: "We're closer than we've ever been, but we're not there yet, until we get the technology absolutely nailed down, the better way of doing it is for the drivers to police themselves."

[cart7]

Originally posted by JoeBob
At Daytona, Morgan McClure was penalized for having an "unapproved fuel cell container modification" According to Jayski:



As for racing back to the yellow - supposedly Mike Helton told the drivers last week that if they didn't follow the "Gentleman's Agreement," NASCAR would make a rule on it. (Which makes you wonder why they don't just make the rule in the first place.) Then he told the media: "We're closer than we've ever been, but we're not there yet, until we get the technology absolutely nailed down,...

the better way of doing it is for the drivers to police themselves." italics mine
Here fox, guard this hen house door.
:rolleyes: