Jeff Gordon to meet with NASCAR to discuss safety

Long an advocate for increased safety, Jeff Gordon will meet with NASCAR next week to discuss SAFER barriers and the need for tracks to pad their walls more effectively.

Last Sunday Gordon hit a concrete wall during the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He was uninjured, but emerged from his battered No. 24 car frustrated Atlanta had not covered that portion of the wall with a SAFER barrier and was seen gesturing to track workers.

When Gordon meets with NASCAR, he wants to know when tracks will begin adding additional “soft walls” and if the energy-absorbent barriers will be installed on every wall a car could possibly impact. The four-time Cup champion, who is retiring from full-time competition at the end of the season, will speak Tuesday with executive vice president Steve O’Donnell.

“The one thing that I would question is when did SAFER barriers start being put at race tracks and what was the plan for them to be complete and where are we in that plan,” Gordon said Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “I was under the impression when they started going in it was going to be a three- or four-year plan to complete the SAFER barriers in every wall that needed to have a SAFER barrier.”

“To me every area that they say, ‘Yes, that wall would be safer with a SAFER barrier’ it needs to have a SAFER barrier and we need to know what the time frame is and when it is going to become a SAFER barrier.”

Tracks throughout NASCAR have been scrambling to add SAFER barriers and other safety measures since Kyle Busch slammed nearly head-on into an unprotected concrete wall during an Xfinity Series race Feb. 21 at Daytona International Speedway. The accident left Busch with a broken right leg and broken left foot and he is out indefinitely.

The night of Busch’s wreck, Daytona track president Joie Chitwood III promised SAFER barriers would be installed throughout the speedway in time for the July NASCAR weekend. O’Donnell also said the sanctioning body would re-evaluate its procedures determining which walls tracks must cover.

In the days following Busch’s accident, officials from Atlanta Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Kentucky Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway have said they will add either SAFER barriers or tire packs around their facilities before they host races.

Before its race weekend, Atlanta constructed SAFER barriers near the exit of pit road and tire packs along the inside Turn 4 wall. The area Gordon hit was not protected, something he instantly knew.

“When I hit a non-SAFER barrier wall I go, ‘Wow, what did I just hit? What was that?’” Gordon said. “I’m always caught off guard by the impact and how severe it is. Every time I have felt that it is because I hit something that was not protected with SAFER barrier.

“With a SAFER barrier wall and this happened to me I think at Texas ... I blew a right-front tire going into Turn 1. I was like, ‘Oh God this is going to hurt. Oh, that wasn’t so bad.’ So it’s a huge difference.”

SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barriers cost an estimated $500 a foot to construct. Tracks are required to have “soft walls” in the corners and work with NASCAR to determine whether additional barriers are needed in other likely high-impact areas.

The high costs and limited building materials -- a combination of steel and foam -- are often the reasons cited why tracks don’t have SAFER barriers on all walls surrounding the racing surface.

“I don’t think anybody expected them to have SAFER barriers around every wall day one,” Gordon said. “I think I’m realistic to know that they can’t just have it next week. It takes a while to manufacturer them. There are only a couple of (companies).

“My question is what is the time frame to have those built and installed? I think everybody knows it’s a priority, but it seems to be kind of pushed further a long since Kyle’s accident. Where were we prior to Kyle’s accident on that plan?”