Tragedy at today's Talladega race has left 3 drivers dead and injured 3 others, with only 7 laps to go LeMoyne Crawford spun Sara Casey out, just as she was coming out of turn 4. It was reported that Crawford was heard to say on the radio "that will teach her to bump and run on me." Mired in a tangle of 15 other cars, Casey's car careened into Carl Edwards and the cars began to pile up. It appeared that Earnhardt Jr.'s car struck the car of Tony Stewart right behind the fuel filler spout causing it to explode, showering the whole pileup of cars in burning fuel. Killed in the pileup and fire were Dale EarnhardtJr., Tony Stewart, and Carl Edwards. The injured include Kasey Kane, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Jarrett. Ladies and gentlemen, Dale Jarrett was set to retire at the end of today's race.
Folks, This is a made-up story, but it could happen on any given Sunday because of road rage on the racetracks of our country. Road rage is not something that only happens on the L.A. freeways. Nascar must take steps today to force drivers to alter their thinking.
In my opinion, Nascar has to establish and publish some very extreme penalties for this type of action. The penalties have to be enforced equally across the board for all drivers who intentionally wreck or try to wreck another driver.
I feel that those penalties should include parking the car and the driver if the incident takes place during a race. If the incident takes place after the checkered flag the driver should be parked for the next week's race. In either case, the penalty should also include the forfeiting of the day's winnings and points. If a driver is involved in a second incident during one season, the penalty should be doubled and if there is a third incident involving the same driver , he should be supended for 1 season (36 races).
When a driver decides to throw caution and safety to the wind, they need to be slapped and slapped hard enough to get the driver or the owner's attention. These types of severe penalities will get the owner's attention even if it doesn't get the driver's and they (the owners) will step in and say, "enough is enough."
By and far, Nascar has been extremely lucky in the small number of severe injuries and deaths that have taken place on the tracks of NASCAR and none of them, to my knowledge, have been caused by road rage. But something needs to be done before tragedy ensues. If not, NASCAR will have regrets and some drivers will live the rest of their life in torment. Because of one minutes' worth of childlike foolishness. That's all it takes.
Your opening paragraph was certainly a scary possibility. Rather sobering concerning Road Rage with a possibility in the future.
Think it is time for NASCAR to taks a stern stance on this issue especially considering the Montoya fiasco of crashing any one that gets in his way on the track and even in the pits as evidenced last Sunday.
One hell of a dangerous driver that needs his wings clipped..
Last edited by photogr on September 3rd at 8:57 PM.
gunaquat
Suffice to say that anytime an event like were to happen. NASCAR would open itself up to a great deal of criticisom.
Even though it's doing more than most to effectively make the environment under which the drivers compete a safer one. The loss of Dale Earnhardt Sr proved that point to all of us and in particular his fans.
THANKS BUT NO THANKS, HAVE GREAT JOB WORKING WITH KIDS IN YOUTH SPORTS. THANKS FOR STOPPING BY AND COMMENTING. I ONLY HOPE THINGS ARE PUT IN PLACE SO THAT THIS NEVER COMES TO PASS.
Just as was the case with your first round post, you appear to be operating outside the laws of physics.
An explosion due to impact is unlikely in the extreme due to the construction of the fuel cell. Also, at those speeds at contact is going to result in the cars dispersing, not gathering. As a result, there isn't an explosion that would be able to engulf six cars.
Also, as it stands now, anyone stupid enough to announce their intent over the radio and then carry it out is going to get hammered very hard in terms of penalties. Nobody has any doubt about that.
Where it gets complicated and what you don't address is determining when somebody is actually using the car as a weapon and when it is just racing. That is why there are so few rough driving penalties handed out.
Finally, the lack of serious injuries and deaths (since 2001) aren't luck. That is good engineering and hard work.
YOUR RIGHT CARS DO NORMALLY DISPERSE, BUT SURE HAVE SEEN LOTS OF PILEUPS AT DAYTONA. MAYBE THINGS DON'T ALWSYS WORK LIKE THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO.
ONCE AGAIN THANKS FOR THE COMMENT.
Exactly how many fuel cells have exploded since they were introduced? It's a very simple piece of engineering with less than a lightening strike possibility of failure.
How many times at 'Dega has contact resulted in six cars being collected so close that an explosion resulting from 18.5 gallons of gas would get them all? You would almost have to have two stacks of cars three high each.
Take a look at the fire the #55 had Sunday. Or the one the #88 had on Saturday. Or the #07 at the Daytona 500. Especially in the case of the #55, the fuel cells are built to make it difficult for them to blow.
The scenario is not reality and your proposed solution is already in place.
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY AGAIN, AND YOUR RIGHT THIS WILL MOST LIKELY NEVER HAPPEN, LORD WILLING, BUT YOU HAVE TO ADMIT, FREAK ACCIDENTS HAPPEN ALL THE TIME. AND AS FAR AS THE PENALTIES, I DON'T KNOW THAT THERE ARE THINGS IN PLACE THAT ARE EQUALLY ENFORCED ON EVERY DRIVER.
BUT IN FACT THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN TO MAKE FOLKS THINK ABOUT IT , AND I GUESS THAT IS WHAT IT IS DOING.
Good entry Gunny. I expect there to be two camps on this one. The folks who think beating and ####ing is something that used to make the sport great and there should always be more of it. And those that think since there are gazillions of dollars on the line nowadays, that it should be eradicated from the sport. Hard to tell where to draw the line I guess. Good luck in the next round.
Sheez. You've been drinking the anti-Montoya Kool-Aid. Although you could cite plenty of examples of aggressive driving, the accident in the pits this past Sunday was purely Carl Edwards fault - and Carl admitted as much in post race interviews.
Dave, I agree. Every time that kind of incident happens on it road, the blame should always fall square on the shoulders of the crew chief. He's supposed to know who pits near you and where those cars are whenever your car is getting serviced. If you have to hold your driver for another two seconds to avoid Montoya, fine. Get the squeegy out and hit Carl's windshield once more for good measure.
WE SEE SOMETHING LIKE THE EDWARDS THING IN ALMOST EVERY RACE, AND YOUR RIGHT, YOU WOULD THINK THE CREW CHIEF WOULD BE PAYING MORE ATTENTION, BUT THEN I GUESS THEY ARE NOT IMMUNE TO GETTING EXCITED ALSO. SO LONG AS THEY ARE NOT TAKING OUT PIT CREW MEMBERS I DON'T SEE ANYTHING TO SWEAT.
To their credit, and unlike Montoya in nearly every case, Edwards and his crew chief admitted the incident was their fault. And you clearly could tell they were both bothered their incident had caused Montoya's day to go downhill fast (whether or not they were thinking "justice has been meted out, however minor" in the dimly lit recesses of their minds - they were convincing in their expression of disappointment regardless).
gunaquat
NASCAR has done all that they can to ensure the safety of its drivers. And the tracks not owned by them they've asked the owners in question to implement procedures that'll make their tracks inherently safer also.
So there's not much more that can be done for now.
THANKS FOR THE SECOND STOP, I THINK YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT THE TRACKS BEING AS SAFE AS THEY CAN BE AT THIS TIME, BUT THE DRIVERS AND THEIR TEMPERS ARE NOT PART OF THE TRACK.
You very well know I have a diss like for Montoya due to his attitude and what he says. Even though I gained a lot of respect for him standing up to Harvick at the road race, I still think he is a dangerous driver and might well be the typical road rage driver to boot. As most of the drivers stated on that incident ( road race) after the race, they thought it was Montoya who was at fault.
Last edited by photogr on September 4th at 8:51 PM.
The scenario that Gunny had stated likely never will ever happen but there is always a possibility something like that could happen. You just never know with cars going 200 MPH. I think he gave a worst case incident that would happen. Highly unlikely though but an attention getter for his article.
Fuel cells are not designed to explode on impact is a fact. This area may be a bit sensationalized but the other Flamable fluids are certainly going to be spashing around. As with the case of Mikeys car Sunday when he had a tire blow out..
You certainly do have the folks theorizing about you scenario. Lets do hope this never does happen.
I can recall as a young guy racing on a track in Fla. when cars didn't have fuel cells yet. ( many just used an aluminum beer keg for a fuel tank).
Watched a driver in front of me ramed the driver in front of him too hard and sent him into the guard rail.
The driver died when the tank exploded.Although we had some degree of supports and frames for the keg, it was an accident waiting to happen. The other driver did it out of rage as was known to do this frequenly to other drivers that ticked him off.Eventually after this race, The racing sanction banned him from racing ever again.
Last edited by photogr on September 4th at 8:54 PM.
gunaquat
That's been the inherent problem altogether as the drivers at times seem to have lost that healthy respect for one another. I ought to be about time that they learn that whilst they're racing everyone is in danger. And that they're not just there to race.
Competitive as the racing is, it's also about being out there on the track and knowing the obvious dangers.
I doubt that they'd be driving like that on a public highway. But then again I may well be wrong. Look at some the incidents that've taken place over the last few years involving some of the top drivers.
Wow, Gun you really got people talking about the potential crash.
I like your ideas for taking the prize money and points from these drivers but I am unclear how you would determine what is 'just' a racing incident and what is intentional. Unless they announce it over the radio (as your story goes and as some drivers are dumb enough to do on RARE occasions) there is really no easy way to tell during the race. I think it is clearer after the race or on some of those pit road incidents....its a very hard thing to call b/c you cant punish every contact.
Good job Gun and GOOD LUCK!
Last edited by klvalus on September 5th at 9:30 AM.
This is a possibility that these drives live with each and every time they get into that race car. It is so easy for us as fans to forget that these men are placing themselves into a life and death situation to just entertain us.
I think every driver has the responsibility to keep their heads during a race. But this sport runs on emotion. And at any given time a driver could lose his head and cause a big pileup.
I am not sure how I feel about the penalties that you laid out. In part I agree that something should be done to get the attention of that driver and car owner. But then again, with the inconsistency that NASCAR has shown through the years, I am not sure NASCAR is capable of policing this situation. Will they just look away from a guy like Jeff Gordon causes a pileup and just call it an accident, whereas if say Robbie Gordon causes a pileup they park him.
So until NASCAR decides to quit playing favorites, their penalties are meaningless.
But one thing next time, don't kill off Smoke, kill off Gordon. lol
THE ONLY WAY I KNOW TO MAKE THAT DECISION IS, IF A DRIVER CHASES ANOTHER ONE HALF WAY AROUND THE TRACK YOU CAN FIGURE THAT IT IS ON PURPOSE, IF IT IS IN THE NORMAL BUMP AND #### AND MOVING THEN THAT IS "JUST RACING" BY THE WAY THANKS FOR STOPPING BY, AND HAVE FUN THE REST OF THE WEEK IN IRELAND.
GUNAQUAT
Last edited by gunaquat on September 5th at 1:52 PM.
Gunaquat, excellent post. It's a very harrowing scenario of the dangers of road rage in NASCAR. You'd have three drivers that would have perished that had NOTHING to do with the Crawford-Casey feud.
I'm in favor of letting the drivers slug it out with their fists if necessary without fear of a penalty a la Yarborough vs. the Allison brothers. Let 'em fight and settle it like men, then have a brew together after the race. Facial bruises heal up. I imagine a Montoya vs. Harvick melee at the Glen would have really got the crowd going!
I agree with your solution of the driver being parked for road rage.
It's easy. They hire a professional "NASCAR Psychologist" and put her in the Nascar hauler at the end of the races. Then when the bosses pull Kurt in there and ask him what he was thinking when he did something, klvalus can say, "Hey, I saw that! He was looking to the left, so that means he was lying! Dock him a hunderd points!"
There, now you know when it's road rage and when it's just a racing incident.
THANKS FOR STOPPING AND COMMENTING, THIS IS A TOUGH THING TO POLICE AND I WOULDN'T WANT TO BE THE ONE WHO HAS TO DO IT. ONCE AGAIN THANKS FOR THE COMMENTS, AND LETS HOPE WE NEVER LOSE 3 DRIVERS LIKE THIS.
I hope you don't mind my calling you Gunny...I like it and it just sounds right!
Your blog is quite good. It's very thought provoking. How scary is it to think that an incident like that could actually happen? And it could happen all due to what you refer to as "childlike foolishness". You also made a good point in saying that the owners will have to step in and say enough already.
I appreciate your thoughts on this as a true NASCAR fan. I enjoyed your blog 10x over what "THE SHRINK" had to say.
I AM FROM OKLAHOMA AND HAVE WORKED IN THE FIELD OF YOUTH SPORTS AND RECREATION FOR OVER 25 YEARS.
I AM A FAN OF NASCAR, AND OU COLLEGE FOOTBALL. THINGS THAT ARE PUT ON THIS BLOG WILL USUALLY BE BASED ON THESE SUBJECTS , BUT NOT ALL THE TIME.
