Just as he prepared to cross the finish, Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked in his rearview mirror last July at Daytona International Speedway. What he saw frightened him.
NASCAR still working on right formula for fan and driver catchfence safety at Daytona
Restrictor-plate races have always presented danger for drivers, but recently and with greater frequency fans have been getting injured as well.
Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Contact with Denny Hamlin had launched Austin Dillon’s No. 3 car into the air soaring toward the catchfence that surrounds Daytona’s frontstretch. The fencing held and Dillon’s car remained inside the track, but a sizeable debris field scattered across the grandstands.
Although Dillon miraculously emerged from the wreckage unscathed, four spectators were treated for injuries on-site, eight declined treatment and one was transported to a local hospital where they were released later that night.
“In the mirror, it’s hard to tell what part of his car got into the fence,” Earnhardt said Thursday at Daytona, the venue for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400. “Those fences do a lot of damage to the cars trying to keep them inside the race track and out of the grandstands. I just was worried about Austin and hoping that he was okay.
“Watching it from the mirror, you couldn’t tell whether the bottom of the car, which is probably the best-case scenario in that situation, hit the fence, or the top. I was just worried about that.”
While Earnhardt, overwhelmingly NASCAR’s most popular driver, may have won, the story wasn’t about him. No, instead, the headlines and highlights the following morning centered on Dillon’s harrowing accident, which included a gaping 60-foot hole in the catchfence and the engine off the No. 3 car having separated, smoldering several hundred yards away.
What the accident wasn’t, however, was a rare occurrence. Cars getting airborne, ripping down sections of fencing with shrapnel spraying across the grandstands has become an all too familiar sight in recent years.
Dillon’s crash marked the fourth time a driver catapulted into the catchfence at Daytona or Talladega Superspeedway since 2009. In each instance, the carnage unfolded on the final lap near the start/finish line, a direct byproduct of the close quarters racing that transpires whenever NASCAR races at Daytona and Talladega. It is these two tracks where NASCAR implements horsepower-reducing restrictor-plates that may slow speeds but also lump the field together in a large pack with little recourse to escape when trouble erupts. The fans are at great risk.
Despite the volatility and stomach-churning site of a vehicle disintegrating as it impacts the fencing, no drivers were injured in any of the four crashes. For some sitting on the other side, they weren’t as fortunate.
A 17-year-old high school senior was struck by a piece of debris that broke her lower jawbone when Carl Edwards’ car got into the fencing at Talladega in 2009.
When Joey Coulter somersaulted through the air during a 2012 Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega, two fans were hurt. One had to be transported to a nearby hospital for further treatment.
In 2013, in an accident that foreshadowed Dillon’s last summer, Kyle Larson flipped into the fencing. Twenty-eight fans were injured, with 14 requiring offsite medical attention.
Dylan Whitlock is well versed in what it’s like to witness a car or truck coming at fans as they sit in the grandstands. He has been attending NASCAR events since 2003, favoring the low-level seats because of the sight lines and affordability.
“Seeing the danger aspect is what separates racing from other sports,” Whitlock told SB Nation in a phone interview. “Danger is why many people want to watch.”
The 20-year-old college student at Mississippi State University was sitting in the first few rows when Edwards wrecked seven years ago at Talladega. Whitlock was also present when Dillon went airborne last summer.
“It happens really fast, so usually by the time it’s happened and you realized it’s happened, it’s over,” Whitlock said. “It’s gone past you and you’re trying to figure out what just happened.”
That preference also puts Whitlock in harm’s way for what has seemingly been an epidemic of restrictor-plate races featuring ghastly crashes where cars and truck get airborne and shred fences or come close to doing so.
“For the most part, I feel safe sitting there,” Whitlock said. “Just going to the track I’m going on these multi-hour drives to get there and I always see one or two car accidents on the way, often pretty bad. The way I look at it is: You’re not any more likely to get hurt watching the race as you are going to the race.”
The May Sprint Cup weekend at Talladega saw two cars tumble, including Matt Kenseth, who narrowly avoided flipping into a sectioned off infield portion of the track.
After each incident NASCAR diligently examines ways to improve safety for competitors and spectators alike. Recent changes pertain to the construction of the cars, like specifying how a driver’s harness and seatbelts are installed and moving the location of the seat away from the door.
That Edwards, Coulter, Larson and Dillon all were able to walk away is directly attributed to the sanctioning body’s emphasis. Among the latest initiatives is finding a way to protect spectators better when a car gets airborne, though NASCAR and drivers believe that may not be entirely preventable.
Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR Vice President of Innovation and Racing Development, told reporters Tuesday research showed no car has gone airborne since 2013 solely because it spun out. In cases where cars did lift off the ground it was due to either contact with another car, which essentially acted as a ramp, or damage that created a virtual wing compromising the original structure, thus making it vulnerable.
“The cars are going to get airborne at these race tracks, we’re going pretty fast,” Earnhardt said. “And in certain circumstances, they’ll get airborne anywhere, really. In a bad situation there’s just as much potential here as there is at Michigan or anywhere else. We see cars flip at a lot of different race tracks ... it’s just not at the plate tracks.”
As part of a $400 million renovation completed in January, Daytona not only eliminated the 10 rows of seats positioned closest to the fencing, but also pushed the remaining seats back and up to offer better protection.
“I will say this, before Daytona did its renovations, it felt really dangerous down there, because basically you sat right on the track,” Whitlock said. “The front row was like 10 feet from the track and people could just walk up to the fence.”
But while NASCAR takes steps to improve safety on the track and off, fans such as Whitlock have mixed feelings. Whitlock acknowledges part of the allure of motor sports is the element of danger. Seeing a driver attempt to push themselves to a limit -- and often beyond -- is enthralling, thus the willingness to take a chance to see the drama firsthand.
Still, some drivers contend NASCAR could do more to prevent similar accidents such as Dillon’s from occurring. The tumult of Talladega entailed Kenseth and Chris Buescher flipping in separate accidents and Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano each having their rear wheels come off the ground.
Kyle Busch cited the abundance of crashes and what he perceived as a lack of excitement at Talladega as why NASCAR officials should’ve modified the rules package for Daytona. That everything remains as is displeases the defending Sprint Cup champion.
“I was certainly hoping that we would see something coming off the race that we saw at Talladega,” Busch said. “No rule changes is not a welcoming site for me, but it is what it is. We’ll go and crash some more.”
But with the rules and the style of racing associated with Daytona and Talladega remaining similar, it wouldn’t be surprising if another accident similar to Dillon’s occurs on Saturday night.
“I’m hopeful that NASCAR is looking at ways to figure out how to keep the cars on the ground,” Earnhardt said. We didn’t make any changes going into this race from the package. But, they’re two different race tracks, and hopefully that will play a role in keeping things a little safer for the drivers.
“We definitely didn’t like what we saw at Talladega. And I’d rather not get upside down if I don’t have to.”
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