It is unfortunate to see any driver hurt and I wish Kyle Busch a speedy recovery. It unfortunately appears that it could take a bit of time to heal from these injuries.
What has me annoyed about this incident is that, despite the fact that Daytona Speedway is in the process of spending nearly half a billion dollars upgrading their facilities, it was not until after this latest high profile driver injury that it was decided to install the SAFER walls everywhere at Daytona. If the decision was that easy to make my question is why did they wait until after someone was injured to make the decision? This unfortunately reminds me of the old NASCAR attitude towards driver safety which I was hoping had changed since Dale Sr died in 2001.
I understand that auto racing is an inherently dangerous activity and as such there is no realistic way to make the sport 100% safe. However NASCAR also knows that their drivers are the most marketable aspect of the sport and as such nearly all branding is done around the drivers so it should be well worth their while to make every reasonable effort to keep drivers safe. Over the past 15 years one of the biggest safety innovations in NASCAR has been the use of the SAFER barrier (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) or 'soft wall' which has been well proven in the real world to save lives and prevent injury. The drivers have been calling for soft wall installation everywhere it is safe and reasonably feasible to do so for several years now yet NASCAR and the track owners have resisted these efforts. I hope that such a high profile injury on the eve of NASCAR's biggest race of the season proves to be a wake up call that pushes NASCAR to work closer with the tracks to address this issue.
What has me annoyed about this incident is that, despite the fact that Daytona Speedway is in the process of spending nearly half a billion dollars upgrading their facilities, it was not until after this latest high profile driver injury that it was decided to install the SAFER walls everywhere at Daytona. If the decision was that easy to make my question is why did they wait until after someone was injured to make the decision? This unfortunately reminds me of the old NASCAR attitude towards driver safety which I was hoping had changed since Dale Sr died in 2001.
I understand that auto racing is an inherently dangerous activity and as such there is no realistic way to make the sport 100% safe. However NASCAR also knows that their drivers are the most marketable aspect of the sport and as such nearly all branding is done around the drivers so it should be well worth their while to make every reasonable effort to keep drivers safe. Over the past 15 years one of the biggest safety innovations in NASCAR has been the use of the SAFER barrier (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) or 'soft wall' which has been well proven in the real world to save lives and prevent injury. The drivers have been calling for soft wall installation everywhere it is safe and reasonably feasible to do so for several years now yet NASCAR and the track owners have resisted these efforts. I hope that such a high profile injury on the eve of NASCAR's biggest race of the season proves to be a wake up call that pushes NASCAR to work closer with the tracks to address this issue.
.. the race ended as we were within sight of the driveway .... we were able to listen to MRN on the radio all across the state and I've come to the conclusion that their programming is designed to mix a little race coverage in with a steady stream of commercials
