CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In the smoky grand ballroom at the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony, nobody received a bigger round of applause from those in attendance than Dr. Dean Sicking. Sicking is a pioneer in both motorsports and roadside safety.
On Thursday, he was honored a day before his recognition as the Landmark Award recipient for outstanding contributions to stock-car racing at the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2025 induction ceremonies.
“I did not expect to win that,” Sicking said. “I was very surprised and honored and want to make sure all the team from Nebraska gets recognized for this effort because they certainly worked hard to make this happen.”
For the inventor of the SAFER barrier, it’s well deserved.
Following the death of Dale Earnhardt on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, as well as the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr. in 2000, NASCAR joined IndyCar’s partnership with Sicking and the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska, going back to 1998, to better understand the circumstances behind each death and prevent future deaths.
Out of that research and development came the steel and foam energy reduction barrier (SAFER, for short).
Unlike the concrete walls of years past, the SAFER barriers “gave way” upon impact.
