NASCAR Atlanta 2015: Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin crash; Gordon hits unprotected wall

Jeff Gordon escaped injury after slamming into an unprotected concrete wall during Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The four-time NASCAR champion, who is retiring at the end of the season, emerged from his No. 24 car and gestured in frustration towards the section of the backstretch wall he struck, which wasn’t covered by a SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barrier.

A week ago Kyle Busch broke his lower right leg and left foot when he impacted an unprotected wall at Daytona International Speedway. He was released from the hospital Friday and is expected to miss several weeks.

“I am very frustrated with the fact there are no SAFER barriers down there,” Gordon said. “I knew it was a hard hit. I was like ‘Man I can’t believe ...‘ I didn’t expect it to be that hard. Then I got out and I looked and I saw, ‘Oh wow big surprise, I found the one wall here on the back straightaway that doesn’t have a SAFER barrier.’”

Busch was watching the race and quickly pointed out the similarities between the two accidents.

“Pretty convenient to c that SAFER Barrier end just before (Jeff Gordon) pounds wall,” Busch said. “Hope he’s healthy! When will this end @NASCAR.”

In the aftermath of Busch’s accident, Daytona officials promised to place SAFER barriers on all walls surrounding the racing surface. NASCAR officials promised to reevaluate whether tracks should install “soft walls” on every wall a driver could potentially strike.

Currently tracks are only required to have SAFER barriers in the turns. Since Busch’s injury track officials from Atlanta, Kentucky Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway have said they will add additional protective walls. Atlanta added tire barriers to some sections of its walls that weren’t already protected. The portion Gordon hit was not covered.

“I don’t think we can say any more after Kyle’s incident at Daytona,” Gordon said. “Everybody knows we have to do something and it should have been done a long time ago. All we can do now is hope they do it as fast as they possibly can.”

The accident Gordon was caught up in began when Denny Hamlin broke loose and slid up the track and into a pack of cars just as the field bunched together following a restart. Also involved and sustaining heavy damage was Jamie McMurray.

Hamlin took responsibility for the accident, saying he was trying to avoid running into teammate Carl Edwards. It appeared Hamlin drifted up and clipped the nose of Ryan Newman before collecting McMurray and Gordon.

“I didn’t see (Hamlin) spin out there,” McMurray said. “I was trying to pass the No. 31 (Newman) on the bottom and I honestly thought I got hit by the No. 31. I had to watch the replay to see that (Hamlin) had lost it on top and came down. I don’t know if he clipped the No. 31 or if he clipped me. I didn’t see any of that coming. That was kind of out of the blue. You just try to get all you can on the restarts and he just got loose.”