Bristol Motor Speedway added SAFER barriers in turns 2 and 4 recently, which took away three feet of the former racing groove. But Matt Kenseth wondered why BMS doesn’t simply finish the job for the purposes of safety.
Matt Kenseth Calls For More SAFER Barriers At Bristol
“I think as long as we’re spending money on SAFER barriers when you put all these people in here, we should just put them all the way around every track on the outside and inside,” he said. “Then you wouldn’t have to worry and there wouldn’t be all those weird transitions.”
SAFER barriers are the so-called “soft walls” that have some give when cars hit them at high speeds. NASCAR made them mandatory at every track last decade, but they are not installed all the way around the track at each venue.
Kenseth said he can tell off Turn 4 that the track is narrower than before and said drivers would hit the wall sooner than they did prior to the barrier expansion.
But, he added, “It’s kind of weird because you come off and there’s the SAFER barrier and then it goes away from you and the wall is half-a-car-length away from you and then it comes again. I wish they would put it all around everywhere.”
Kenseth, second in points through four races – the last three with new crew chief Todd Parrott – said he’s pleased with his team’s new outlook.
“Everybody’s attitude, including mine, has been a little bit better,” he said. “It’s probably put a little spark in the thing. … Everybody has been pulling on the same end of the rope.”
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