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S.A.F.E.R. + C.O.T. = NO RIP (And Other Idle Thoughts)
4/7/08: SOZ Studios, MI - By Dennis Michelsen "DMIC" (RaceTalkRadio.com)
The McDowell family should send a letter of thanks to the Earnhardt family for saving Michael McDowell's life! Dale's death scolded NASCAR into doing more about safety and several drivers' lives have been spared because NASCAR's Superman was killed seven years ago. When McDowell's car smashed into the wall you could hear a pin drop! No one was expecting what came next with Michael walking away from the crash without a scratch! While credit was quickly given to the new car design I give more credit to the SAFER barriers developed at the University of Nebraska. That impact was not only vicious it came at an angle that could have imposed a fatal blow to the driver without the wall absorbing some of the energy. Having the HANS device on the driver also helped and that was another direct result of Earnhardt's crash. It's sad that the sports' greatest driver ever had to die for some changes to be made. But NASCAR is taking safety serious now and THAT saved the life of Michael McDowell this weekend!
Not S.A.F.E.R Enough
Can someone explain to me why those SAFER barriers don't also ring the inside of the track at a high-speed track like Texas Motor Speedway? JJ Yeley didn't look quite as good after his crash in the Samsung 500 as McDowell did on Friday. Thankfully the car design moving the driver closer to the middle and wearing a HANS device minimized the impact on the driver. But we saw this issue at Las Vegas and now at Texas Motor Speedway too. Big hits can and do happen at these fast tracks so the inside walls are as dangerous as the turns! Every track should look at their inside walls and add SAFER barriers before anyone gets seriously hurt.
Here Kitty Kitty
This new oil dry stuff is driving NASCAR drivers crazy! NASCAR figured they had a solution to last year's never ending cautions to clean up oil. They figured by changing oil dry substances they could soak up the mess made by the synthetic oils quicker. But what they didn't figure was by fixing one problem they might have caused a few others! This new oil dry stuff seems to linger on the track longer. The old stuff could be raced into the surface pretty quick. But even after blowing the excess off the track the racing groove is junk for quite a few laps after the new stuff is put down. We saw two classic examples this weekend. The first came in that horrible wreck in qualifying by Michael McDowell. The second was the lack of an outside groove at the end of the Samsung 500. This new oil dry stuff also clings to the windshields a lot worse making vision issues worse for the drivers. Maybe NASCAR can find a better oil dry substance soon.
Not as Lucky
Racing is an inherently dangerous business and that fact was driven home again this weekend. Thompson Speedway suffered another fatality during their season opening "2008 Ice Breaker." Midget driver Shane Hammond of Halifax, Mass died after injuries suffered when his car hit another car and flipped over the concrete wall and struck a billboard. This was the second fatal wreck in the last eight months at this famous speedway in Thompson, Conn. Modified driver John Blewett III died last August. Drivers are reminded that this is a dangerous business and accepting the minimum of safety equipment is not always safe enough.
History Making Victory in Open Wheels
When it comes to exciting young talent in the IRL Indy Car Series most people were expecting the news to come from Marco Andretti. But Graham Rahal became the youngest winner in IRL history besting Marco by 74 days! Just nineteen years and sixty-three days old Graham won in his first race in the IRL driving for his father Bobby Rahal, co-owner of Rahal-Letterman Racing. Graham Rahal missed the first race of the season at Homestead-Miami after a practice crash on the high-speed oval. The young Rahal looked right at home on the tight street circuit in St. Petersburg, Fla. Look for this to be a crazy first season of unification in the Indy car ranks with the old CHAMP car guys strong on the road courses and the IRL guys on the ovals!
It's Not Boring Just Because Someone Dominated
Every NASCAR race can't be a photo finish with flames on the cars as they spin and tumble their way to the checkered flag! If two or three drivers nail the set up and drive away from the field leaving only ten guys in the lead lap so what! This is racing folks! Some weeks the race is a blow out and some weeks the races are tight. Thousands of pieces go into these racecars and no two are identical no matter how even NASCAR tries to make the competition! Do you see baseball fans say it was a boring game when a team wins 12-1? Enjoy the race and the competition in each and every race! If we get a photo finish that is great but let's also celebrate if someone runs away by ten laps. If the day ever comes that NASCAR tries to cook the books to get every race to be close at the end we will have lost the value of racing!
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