Soft walls are coming to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The formal announcement is scheduled for later this week, but work has already begun on the installation of what will certainly be the most written about safety improvement to hit motorsports since the seat belt.

Indy president Tony George has been working on the soft wall project for more than five years. After experimenting with a collapsible plastic barrier in the mid-'90s, George got together with a group of experts at the University of Nebraska and embarked upon an experiment that will see tangible results when the track opens for practice.

These soft walls won't be big. They won't surround the track. They will end up located at critical areas (each of the track's four corners) in an effort to increase the margin of safety and reduce the forces generated when a car collides with the concrete.

Look elsewhere for the specifics of the soft walls going up at Indy. Their use catapults racing to a new level. If you think I am gushing about Indy's decision, you are correct. Soft walls have been a hot topic long before Dale Earnhardt lost his life during last year's Daytona 500.

The issue has been pursued as long as cars have been running around tracks.

Road racing has used gravel pits and tire barriers to slow down sudden impacts. Everything from rubber conveyer belts to water-filled barrels to giant sections of foam have been tried.

A couple of years ago, this weekend's NASCAR Winston Cup winner Jimmie Johnson connected with a soft wall of foam that was placed in critical areas of the Watkin's Glen road course.

"Before my win Sunday, surviving that crash was my most memorable moment," said Johnson.

In the past, the biggest setback to the use of soft walls was the cleanup time required. Every crash creates a debris field. When crashes involved soft walls, the debris geometrically increased due to the destruction of the soft wall. In short, they were not practical for use on ovals.

Now, Indy says, this problem has been solved.

Does this mean that we will see the end of heart-stopping white-walling by drivers like Eddie Cheever Jr. when they exit Turn 4 at Indy? The answer is no. The actual driving lines at the Brickyard will not change. The new wall will gradually decrease as from the apex of each corner.

This change has created a stir with Indy's driving community. Just this past weekend, Sarah Fisher was in Connecticut serving as a Grand Marshal at a NASCAR short track and she was full of questions regarding the rumored decision to install the soft walls at Indy.

I can't wait to see the units. I hope that they will not be needed, but know that they will get a workout during practice, qualifying and the running of the Indianapolis 500. After that who knows what this soft wall will mean to racing.

One thing is certain. It has raised the bar for every track operator in the world.