Dale Earnhardt Jr. #8 Post Earrings - 14 kt gold

LADIES LEATHER NASCAR JACKETS

May 7,2003

Engineers led by Dr. Dean Sicking at the University of Nebraska's Midwest Roadside Safety Facility in Lincoln ran a used Winston Cup car into a full-scale mock-up of a turn at Richmond International Raceway, which is the site of the serious accident Friday involving driver Jerry Nadeau.

The barrier, which earned rave reviews from NASCAR and Indy Racing League competitors at Indy last year, needed modifications to work in the tighter turns found at Richmond and other tracks. The barrier also was installed at Talladega Superspeedway, but only on the track's inside retaining walls.

The tests were observed by NASCAR managing director of competition Gary Nelson and technical director of special projects Steve Peterson.

A SAFER barrier system is in place in the turns at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but because the 2.5-mile track has a longer radius in each of its turns, that same version of the "soft wall" won't work at a place like Richmond.

The barrier segments at Indy are about 20 feet long, Sicking said. Segments for a track like Richmond, however, would be only about 6 feet long, and Sicking's team believes that could be a problem. The shorter segments complicate the way segments slide together.

The SAFER system at Indy has cartridges of foam behind the barrier itself that are different for stock cars and IndyCars.

While working on the issues presented by turn radius, Sicking and his team are also refining the barrier so that the same cartridges could be used for different types of cars. That would allow the barrier to be put up at tracks where, for instance, the NASCAR Trucks and the Indy Racing League are on the track for practices on the same day.

All development of the barrier must be tested before it can be implemented at tracks like Richmond and New Hampshire, Sicking said.

Sicking said it's clear to him how badly NASCAR wants to see the walls go up.

"Every indication we get out of NASCAR is they would like this to happen much quicker than we've been able to pull this off," he said. "The only thing we're getting out of NASCAR is pressure to go faster."

Sicking said Monday morning he hadn't yet seen replays of Nadeau's crash, but based on what he had been told it's the type of incident where the barrier might be beneficial.

"In a driver's side crash, there is really very little crush distance available in the car," he said. "This in one of the impacts where we think the barrier would have had some opportunity to help. ...

"Whether it would have made a difference or not, though, is useless speculation."

Installation of SAFER barriers has been delayed because Sicking "has not been comfortable with the results," according to NASCAR's Jim Hunter.

"He told us he's scared to put anything out there that he's not 100 percent confident with, that's going to hurt somebody rather than help somebody," Hunter said.

"He's getting a lot of pressure from us and the IRL and everybody in the sport to move quicker, but he says in scientific projects you don't want to move faster because you might overlook something."

Richmond and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway are at the top of Marlin's list of tracks that desperately need SAFER barriers. Sterling Marlin was injured at Richmond last year.

"It's a pretty fast track," Marlin said of Richmond. "You run pretty quick through those corners and when you have a deal (a setup to run fast), it's one hell of a shot."

Safety has come a long way since 2001, when seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt died on the last lap of the Daytona 500.

Mike Ford, crew chief for Bill Elliott's No. 9 Dodge, said NASCAR made cockpit safety its top, short-term priority but now needs to look at different areas of the car.

"The cockpit has been the issue the last couple of years and we have come leaps and bounds from where we were," Ford said. "Not to say there isn't more work to be done there -- there are already several issues that have come about. Seats have improved, leg support has been improved, but nothing has been done to the chassis."

Specifically, Elliott said there's not enough crush area built into the chassis of today's stock cars.

"I've always said the most vulnerable place on our cars is hitting the left side because that's where we sit," Elliott said. "There needs to be more measures making our cockpit a little bit bigger."

NASCAR is testing crushable metals, such as aluminum foam, which could help absorb some of the shock of a crash.

"On the advice of our two outside experts and car manufacturers, they said about 80 percent of what we could do to improve things would be inside the cockpit and the other 20 percent would be with the rest of the car," Hunter said.

He added that NASCAR is designing a "car of the future," which will be bigger and feature a larger cockpit area.

"We have to do that over a period of years so we don't (make everything in the garage) obsolete overnight," Hunter said.

Elliott emphasized the need for a traveling emergency crew, a band of doctors, nurses and safety specialists who would work with Winston Cup Series' competitors on a weekly basis.

"They've come up a step, where they have some nurses and doctors that do travel," Elliott said. "But that isn't like having a safety crew that is trained that can go right to it and do what they need to do."

Hunter said NASCAR recently has added a "chase" vehicle to its emergency crew lineup. The vehicle is the first on the scene of an wreck with a NASCAR official at the wheel and an EMT in the passenger seat.

"Our position on the medical end is well known," Hunter said. "We prefer to use local EMTs who do that every day as a line of work. We always felt having a local group who does it every day is better than having somebody travel who does it so many weekends a year."

Marlin's car owner, Chip Ganassi, said that when he talks to NASCAR officials about safety issues he walks away satisfied the sanctioning body is making progress.

"It's easy for us to sit on the outside and say what they should do and how they should do it," Ganassi said. "Each time I sit down with them and broach that subject, I'm comfortable that they're working very fast and very hard."

Hunter said if all goes according to plan, SAFER barriers will be up for the fall races at Richmond and New Hampshire International Speedway.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. #8 Post Earrings - 14 kt gold