by
Bill Fleischman
Daily News Sports Writer
NASCAR
has a problem. A major problem.
Two drivers, Kenny Irwin and Adam Petty, have died in race track accidents
within two months. Both accidents occurred in the same turn during practices at
New Hampshire International Speedway.
On Sunday, the Winston Cup road show returns after a weekend off. The
Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway will be the second Cup race since Irwin, 30,
was killed at New Hampshire.
Racers have the ability to put tragedy out of their minds while they are on the
job. However, the deaths of Irwin and Petty are on the minds of everyone
involved in NASCAR.
The question facing NASCAR is: What will be done to prevent future deaths on
the race track?
Every racer realizes the sport is risky. NASCAR's safety record has been
remarkably clean. Irwin's death was the first involving a Winston Cup driver
since Neil Bonnett and Rodney Orr died within three days of each other at
Daytona in February 1994. Petty was practicing for a Busch Grand National race.
The reaction to deaths involving racers and fans is similar to that of plane
crashes in which hundreds perish - the sudden loss of life temporarily obscures
thoughts of the many safe flights.
Still, when a driver dies or fans watching a race are killed by debris from
race cars, the demands for better safety measures heat up, as they should.
The most frequently heard first step is installing some absorbing material that
will cushion the impact when cars crash at high speeds. Another suggestion is
installing kill switches on the ignition.
Plastic foam barriers at Watkins Glen, N.Y., prevented rookie Jimmie Johnson
from suffering serious injuries in a crash during a recent Busch Grand National
race.
Writing for ESPN.com, Larry McReynolds, the crew chief for Mike Skinner's Cup
team, said: "We have to make sure we cushion the impact as much as
possible. The real problem is, these race cars are hitting solid concrete
walls, with dirt behind them in a lot of cases, and there's no give."
One complaint about the plastic barriers is they are a mess to clean up.
"So what?" McReynolds said. "Clean the mess up. What's worse,
having to attend a funeral or cleaning the mess up?"
Driver Bobby Hamilton says he would gladly help sweep up the splattered foam
after a crash if the material would save lives.
Another driver, Ricky Craven, said the time to act is now.
"We don't give 10 cents of thought to the risks until it happens, then we
don't know how to deal with it," Craven said at New Hampshire.
Several times after Irwin's death, people who notice racing only when there is
a death asked how NASCAR could hold qualifying at New Hampshire just hours
after Irwin died. The answer, and no one is saying it's the correct answer is,
racing has a show-must-go-on mentality.
"It's hard, sometimes, to go on with it, but we feel like it is necessary
to," said Mike Helton, NASCAR's chief operating officer. "NASCAR is
more like a community, and if the citizen of a community passes away, the
community still has to go on. Your heart may not be in it 100 percent, but it
has to go on.
"It's not because we don't have a heart or a soul. It's simply because we
have a lot of responsibilities to a lot of different people. The biggest thing
is, that's what we do, we race. That's what Kenny did, he raced. That's what
Adam did, he raced."
Tracks such as New Hampshire that don't have much banking are more susceptible
to accidents. Higher banking helps a driver turn the car when he encounters a
problem entering the turns.
What's amazing is, in 2000, with all the technology available, no one has found
a reasonably inexpensive way of making the tracks safer for drivers.
"Maybe, from this, somebody will develop something," said Kevin
Triplett, NASCAR's director of operations.
Triplett said several meetings have been held since Irwin's on safety. He said
more input has been collected from drivers, crew chiefs and engineers than ever
before.
"We're all very saddened by what has happened," Triplett said.
"We're looking for answers."