No quick fix for plate-racing perils
Risks can be cut, but safety can’t be guaranteed
BEACH, DAYTONA FLA . Austin Dillon’s horrifying crash into the catchfence early Monday at Daytona International Speedway sparked renewed calls from some drivers to fix NASCAR’s perilous restrictor-plate racing.
“That isn’t the first time that has happened here, and it is just dumb that we allow it to happen more than once,” driver Joey Logano said.
But what, if anything, can be done to change it?
In an appearance on Sirius/ XM Radio, NASCAR chairman Brian France said the sanctioning body was beginning an investigation into what it could do better. Dillon’s car was taken to the NASCAR Research and Development Center for evaluation.
“Obviously, whenever a car gets airborne, whatever the circumstances, we are all over that to understand what happened,” he said. “At 8 a.m. this morning, we were already underway with that discussion and that review.”
Short of no longer racing at Daytona or Talladega Superspeedway, none of the options seems to hold an obvious solution. Should NASCAR:
Slow down the cars?
Strengthen the fences?
Move the stands back farther?
Eliminate overtime finishes at superspeedways?
Each of those suggestions might have some merit, but none is enough to guarantee crashes such as the ones involving Dillon, Kyle Larson (Daytona 2013) or Carl Edwards (Talladega 2009) won’t happen.
“It’s just a product of going 200 miles an hour,” a shaken Dale Earnhardt Jr. said after winning the race. “These cars are going fast. And when you put them in odd, rare circumstances like that, they’re going to go up in the air.”
Dillon said he thought the speeds were too high and NASCAR should work to reduce them. The race would still be good with lower speeds, he said. “And we can work on that and then figure out a way to keep cars on the ground.”
That might not ensure cars remain on the ground. Cars have flipped and gotten airborne even at 1-mile tracks such as Dover International Speedway, where speeds are considerably lower.
Of course, NASCAR’s desire to reduce speeds at the two highbanked superspeedways is partly why all of the crashes happen in the first place. Restrictor plates slow the cars and put them into huge packs, and it’s tough to get away from other cars — as in Dillon’s situation — when crashing.
Still, removing the restrictor plates could create an even more dangerous problem because speeds would go unchecked.
Jimmie Johnson also suggested slowing the cars but acknowledged that might not have prevented Dillon from getting airborne. The car didn’t turn backward and lift off as others have; the No. 3 car was knocked sideways, and it took off over other cars when it got hit at just the right angle, which Johnson said shocked him.
“Keep the cars on the ground (and) slow us down would be the only way to do it, and even then there’s no guarantees,” he said.
The catchfence will be scrutinized after Dillon’s crash — track President Joie Chitwood III said it would work closely with NASCAR to evaluate possible improvements — because it was torn down. But it also essentially kept the car out of the grandstands and threw it back onto the track while keeping most of the debris out of the seats.
“I don’t know how you keep a 3,500-pound stock car at 200 miles an hour staying in the racetrack like that,” Johnson said. “The fence held up. It did function well, but the debris going off into the stands is something I don’t know how you can control.”
If Dillon’s car had gone roof-first into the fence or hit with the driver’s side, it might have been a tragic outcome.
But the lack of severe injuries is due to more than just luck. As part of the Daytona Rising renovation project, stands were moved farther back from the fence and fans were banned from walking on the rim road next to the track.
In addition, parts of the fence were strengthened after Larson’s 2013 wreck, in which a crossover gate failed and allowed part of his car to come through.
“(That) just shows you the fence kept everything where it was supposed to be and the other enhancements of Daytona Rising kept the fans safe, so we’re really pleased with that,” Chitwood said. “But we’re going to figure out what else we can learn from this and what we can do to be better prepared next time.”
However, eliminating closer seating at other tracks is no guarantee, either. In Larson’s 2013 wreck, a tire flew into the upper deck and fans were injured.
And as for the elimination of a green-white-checkered finish at plate tracks, there’s a big chance of a wreck at the end of a race no matter the situation.
When driver Denny Hamlin was asked whether NASCAR should look into cutting overtime finishes at Daytona, which would end some races under caution, he said no.
“You want to make the sport as safe as possible, but we’re going to make mistakes like that on lap one sometime down the road at a superspeedway,” Hamlin said. “Trying to eliminate (overtime) at the end of the race where it’s deciding a winner — (the race) probably should get played out.”