February 22, 2001

The Caution Flag
by Carl S. Ey

Thirty-five-hundred pounds of steel traveling 189 miles per hour on a two and a half mile speedway promised to be dangerous for the 52 drivers that came to race in the Daytona 500, but it didn't predict to be tragic for the sport's greatest legend.

"What killed Dale Earnhardt and so many others was a solid car, a magnificent restraint system and the fact that the car de-accelerated from 189 miles per hour to 0 without traveling any distance," said Roger Barr, Foreign Car Shop owner and 14-year racecar driver who has had the privilege of driving at Daytona. "The car stopped, the body stopped and the head kept going."

Shortly after Michael Waltrip cruised through his final lap to victory lane, winning the 43rd rendition of the Great American Race, NASCAR sadly announced that Dale Earnhardt was dead. He was dead on impact as he hit the wall but doctors hoped for a miracle all the way to the hospital.

"NASCAR has increased radically the amount of roll bar protection in the cars," said Barr, an associate professor of Engineering at Brown University. "There are all sorts of safety features and that in and of itself presents a problem because in the old days when the car hit the wall, it crumbled and didn't deform in a linear manner."

Barr indicates that although the safety devices have been implemented to protect the drivers, the roll bars form a one-unit structure built upon a chassis. They don't "give" at all and although the driver's body is restrained, his eight-and-a-half pound skull is only protected by a twelve-pound helmet that in Earnhardt's case wasn't supported by the Head and Neck Support (HANS) device.

Driver safety can't be ignored for NASCAR to continue to be the nation's second leading spectator sport behind the National Football League.  Yet, NASCAR hasn't thrown caution to the wind with regard to protecting drivers.

Restrictor plates were part of this race inhibiting the maximum speed that any car can travel. Furthermore, throttle stops were mandated and "kill switches" became standard on the driver's steering wheel. The deaths of Kyle Petty and Kenny Irwin earlier this year forced NASCAR to make these changes but it wasn't enough.

Earnhardt's death will inevitably send NASCAR back to the safety drawing board.

One feature that NASCAR has not compelled its drivers to use is the HANS device, which stop a driver's most vulnerable body part from being snapped on impact. Only six of the drivers in Daytona's field used them and Earnhardt didn't use HANS because it limited his ability to turn his head and make some of the aggressive moves that had made him famous.

Secondly, NASCAR refuses to increase the size of the tail fin on the automobiles, which would compel the car to be aerodynamically forced to the ground. A longer rear spoiler allows air to have a larger surface to push the car toward the pavement with more force. This limits the driver's chances of spinning out. It gives the drivers more control, particularly as they negotiate corners.

Neither of these has been mandated simply to ensure that NASCAR racing retains its entertainment value.

"There are a whole lot of cars going like hammers out of hell and NASCAR's first god, the church they attend is television revenues and viewers," said Barr. "Most racing sanctioning bodies don't want the cars to handle too well; the complete interest is to make a show."

This year NASCAR struck a $2.4 billion television deal with FOX. They have had higher Nielsen ratings than the NBA, Major League Baseball and the NHL. Furthermore, the sport is bringing $600 million in revenue annually and another $1.2 billion in merchandising.

"The decal on the spoiler costs $1 million," said Barr. The glove box logo that is viewed through the camera mounted inside the vehicle brings in another $100,000.

Making money is no different an interest in NASCAR than in any other business but in spite of the need to implement more safety standards, Barr says that racing is the safest sport in the world because it is so highly regulated. Every turn has a doctor or paramedic, which isn't the case in the four major American sports. Trainers are typically on-hand but not doctors.

Furthermore, Barr is quick to point out that before Earnhardt's car stopped sliding into the infield, an ambulance was coming into the camera's viewfinder. Earnhardt wasn't lying on the "playing field" as a golf cart chugged along with an EMT to render assistance. Resuscitation procedures were being rendered through the window as the car was being sawed open.

Seemingly NASCAR has too many deaths. Yet, Ernest Hemingway indicated in his book The Sun Also Rises that car driving, mountain climbing and bull fighting are the only true sports. The rest are games because imminent peril is an inherent factor in sport.

"The real race fan goes to see good racing," said Barr. "They saw close, close motor sport on Sunday."

© 2001 Carl S. Ey

The Editors and Staff of the American Partisan send our condolences to Dale Earnhardt's survivors. Thanks for the ride Dale, we'll miss you dearly.

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