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Wednesday, Apr. 23, 2008

Safety has come a long way since 2001

Tuesday, some longtime fans of Dale Earnhardt Sr. will celebrate the late driver's birthday. Earnhardt's seven championships, numerous victories and his gritty racing ability will each probably be recalled, each of them things that helped define his legacy as one of NASCAR's best drivers.

But perhaps the most important part of Earnhardt's legacy rests within a video that has been replayed countless times either on TV or on Youtube during the past few weeks, that of Michael McDowell surviving a horrific crash April 4 at Texas Motor Speedway when his car slammed into the outside wall head-first and barrel-rolled at least eight times before coming to a stop.

Yes, Earnhardt's trips to Victory Lane produced moments of great joy for those who loved him and discomfort for those that cheered against him. But none of those victories have had as much of an impact as NASCAR's safety improvements that were spurred on following Earnhardt's untimely death in February 2001.

Prior to Earnhardt's death, safety improvements were on NASCAR's radar, but they didn't loom as large as they probably should have.

Things such as the SAFER barriers, head-and-neck restraints being worn by drivers and the safety features found in the Car of Tomorrow were being tossed around back and forth, but the progress of implementing them was, at best, a slow crawl. The HANS device was met with opposition from some drivers because of it holding a driver's shoulders and neck in place while in the car. Concern also existed regarding cars crashing into softer barriers on the walls of racetracks, creating a mess that would take at least 15 minutes to clean up.

The current safety improvements probably would have been instituted at some point. But when Earnhardt was killed at Daytona, NASCAR was quickly ushered into a national and international spotlight. Its biggest star had just lost his life, and something had to be done to show that the sport was serious about preventing a similar incident.

To its credit, NASCAR reacted quickly. The HANS device, which had been optional for drivers to use, was quickly made mandatory. The SAFER barriers, walls designed to absorb the energy from a car crashing into it instead of a racecar slamming into concrete at over 160 mph, were soon installed on the outside walls at most tracks hosting Sprint Cup Series events.

It was that SAFER barrier that McDowell crashed into earlier this month in Texas while driving the Car of Tomorrow, another safety goal of NASCAR put into higher gear following Earnhardt's death.

The loss of Earnhardt was, without a doubt, a cruel blow to NASCAR and the sport of auto racing. But bad accidents happen sometimes in racing; it's just part of the sport, unfortunately.

But if you are one of those people who believe that a something good can always come out of something bad, comfort can be taken in how far NASCAR's safety has come since that dark February day in 2001.

And Earnhardt is a big reason for it.