Ryan Newman has joined the band of drivers voicing their thoughts to NASCAR about ways to improve track safety. The Richard Childress Racing driver met with NASCAR officials last week to express his personal concern and thoughts about the needed safety enhancements. The 2015 season has witnessed multiple incidents of issues with a less than satisfactory amount of “soft wall” technology on particular portions of major tracks.
Newman earned an engineering degree from Purdue in 2001 providing unique insight during his discussion with NASCAR officials. Newman joined four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon as prominent drivers voicing their desire to meet with NASCAR officials to discuss their personal concerns with the safety enhancements. NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell expressed NASCAR’s mutual desire to meet and discuss the concerns with both star drivers and any other drivers looking to give their input on the possible enhancements to be made to ensure driver safety. O’Donnell sees the meetings with the drivers as an opportunity to discuss plans the tracks are making in regards to the anticipated safety enhancements as well as hear the input of the drivers themselves with O’Donnell expressing, “We’ve encouraged open dialogue throughout the entire industry.”
Multiple prominent tracks across the country have begun investigating and planning enhancements to improve driver safety. The core issue revolves around portions of tracks not sufficiently protected with SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barriers. Drivers like Newman and Gordon believe the entire track should provide this top-notch “soft wall” technology. The technology of the SAFER barriers has been around since 2002 but many tracks have been slow to cover all their walls. The SAFER barriers absorb the collision reducing G-force impact kinetic energy by 50 percent.
Gordon’s desire to meet with NASCAR officials came after he struck an unprotected portion of the wall during the Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this month. Gordon was not injured in the crash but the harsh impact clearly lite a fire in Gordon about resolving the issues of non-protected portions of the track. Gordon told reporters the difference between colliding with a portion of the track touting the SAFER barriers and an unprotected portion were drastic, “I’m always caught off guard by the impact and how severe it is. When I get out of the car, my first thing is I want to see what I hit. Every time I have felt that, it is because I hit something that was not protected with SAFER barrier.”
Gordon, a top-four favorite to capture a fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship according to Gambling.com partners, revealed the 2015 season will be his last full season of competition. With his historic career winding down, Gordon clearly wants to leave the sport he fell in love with better and more safe then when he found it.
Unfortunately, Gordon’s crash at the Atlanta Motor Speedway was not the first incident of 2015 involving a major star colliding with an unprotected portion of a track; a week prior to Gordon’s incident, Kyle Busch was involved in a head-on collision with an unprotected portion of the track during the NASCAR XFINITY Series opener. The wreck at the Daytona International Speedway resulted in Busch suffering a compound fracture in his right leg and a fracture in his left foot.
The 2015 season also saw lesser known drivers personally witness the impact of the unprotected walls at major tracks across the nation. Erik Jones slammed into a portion of the track unprotected by the SAFER barriers during an XFINITY Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
It is clear the lack of full-track SAFER barrier coverage has become an issue for all drivers. The importance of major stars like Newman and Gordon expressing their desire to open dialogue between drivers and NASCAR officials about the needed enhancements is vital in pressuring the governing body to enforce the importance of driver safety at all tracks.
