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Friday, February 23
Drivers hope to learn in tragedy's wake
By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Throughout his illustrious auto-racing career, Dale Earnhardt demanded that tears should not be shed if he died on the track.
|  | | NASCAR Busch Series driver Jimmie Johnson, right, explains the HANS device he's been testing to fellow driver Jason Keller. |
After all, he knew the risks every time he climbed into the narrow cockpit of his black Chevrolet. He accepted those risks. He often defied those risks.
Now, a day after attending a memorial service for Earnhardt, who died in last weekend's Daytona 500, members of the NASCAR community are hoping something positive can be taken from his death. Mainly, they hope to take a sport that at its core is as dangerous as any and make it as safe as possible.
"Unfortunately, we're at a point in our sport where there aren't any simple answers to anything," said Jimmy Makar, crew chief for Bobby Labonte, last year's Winston Cup points champion. "So hopefully NASCAR does a thorough investigation and finds some concrete reasons as to what went wrong. I don't want to see it classified as just 'another accident.'"
The preliminary results of the crash investigation were released Friday, when NASCAR president Mike Helton revealed that Earnhardt's seat belt was found broken after the crash that killed him.
Bill Simpson, founder and chairman of Simpson Performance Products, which manufactures the seatbelt, stood by his product late Friday. He said he has never seen a belt snap apart like that in 43 years of business.
"Our seatbelts, when properly installed, won't fail," he said. "When you compromise safety, the risks for tragedy magnify."
Tragedies are becoming all too common in NASCAR, with the sport seemingly turning into a dangerous game of racing roulette. Earnhardt is the fourth NASCAR driver to die on the track in the past year.
And as if it the death of Adam Petty, grandson of racing legend Richard Petty, wasn't enough to bring the safety issue to the forefront, now the sport is left to deal with the loss of its biggest star.
Walk up and down the garages of the North Carolina Motor Speedway this week and missing is the familiar black GM Goodwrench No. 3 Monte Carlo that once intimidated the competition with its mere presence. Instead, it has been replaced by a white Monte Carlo with the No. 29 emblazoned on the roof and side doors.
That, in itself, has raised some eyebrows.
"Getting back to the track makes it feel like more of a normal week, but it's different not seeing the black No. 3 lurking around here," Makar said. "It's been quite a tough week."
What can be done to avoid such a tragedy in the future remains debatable. Some have suggested that mandatory usage of the Head and Neck Support (HANS) device, a neck brace that would limit movement of the head in violent collisions.
Others have recommended replacing the unforgiving concrete walls at many NASCAR tracks with "softer" walls, designed to better absorb the impact of a crash.
But both suggestions have their limitations. While many were quick this week to suggest the HANS device might have saved Earnhardt's life, and perhaps the lives of the three drivers killed last year, others weren't so sure -- especially in light of Friday's news of the broken seat belt.
"In this particular case, I'm not convinced the HANS device would have made a difference," said Dr. Steve Bohannon of Halifax Hospital in Daytona. "He still would have had the forces transferred as they were. But still, I do like the device."
Many racers aren't so sure. They complain the device is restrictive, limiting their movement in the cockpit. There also are concerns about the ability to quickly slip out of the device quickly in the event of a fire.
Currently, six Winston Cup drivers use the HANS device, 13 drivers plan on using it in the near future and another seven plan to test it.
Still, Hubbard/Downing Inc. of Atlanta, which manufactures the HANS, received more than 40 orders for the device on Monday. How many of those drivers plan to use the device in Sunday's Winston Cup race remains to be seen.
Many of the recent purchases are on backorder. Other drivers are cautious to acclimate themselves to something new. Todd Bodine is one of the drivers still waiting for his HANS.
"I didn't receive it yet, they are just so backed up," Bodine said. "But it isn't something I was going to jump in and use right away. I wanted to test it out a bit."
The situation is similar for Makar's driver, Labonte. Though the HANS device is mandatory in both the CART and Formula One racing circuits, both open-wheel leagues, Makar doesn't believe the device easily applies to the closed-cockpit world of stock car racing.
"The HANS is not the fix," Labonte said. "Will it help? Yes. But it still needs to be tested more and explored. In open-wheel, those drivers don't need a large range of motion. But our drivers have to do a lot more work. And this restricts them."
The other safety suggestion to come to the forefront this week is "soft walls." The walls, made of cushiony material such as high-density foam, have proved to reduce the impact of a crash on a driver's body during testing. But, like the HANS device, there are concerns, mainly that a soft wall could bounce a crashed car back into traffic. Concrete walls tend to disseminate a crash in one confined area.
"Again, that's not the fix either," Makar said. "They need to do more research to figure out exactly where the force of a crash is going to go with a soft wall."
Whatever the case, there is little argument that something needs to be done -- soon -- before another tragedy happens on the track.
Bodine, who considers himself one of the safest drivers on the track, said he would like to see all the drivers in Winston Cup get together and discuss what can be done. Preliminary plans for such a meeting were already being put together Friday.
"Drivers as a community, we don't have much of a voice individually," Bodine said. "We need to organize as one so we can talk about some suggestions and go to NASCAR as a group. And there's a sense of immediacy with this. We need to get this figured out before another tragedy happens."
Bodine and his brother Brett apparently are in the minority, though, when it comes to being proactive about NASCAR safety. For many drivers, there is little room inside the bravado racing mentality for concerns about fear.
Just look at Earnhardt, who raced with a daring open-face helmet, in an often reckless, kamikaze style.
"There's an incorrect perception that people in this sport don't care about safety, but that's not true," Makar said. "But with that, there's no way to be 100 percent safe. This isn't baseball or basketball or hockey, it's auto racing. And if you go into a race dwelling on the fear factor, everybody knows you aren't going to be a good competitor."
Now comes the challenge of finding a balance, which Bodine is hoping he can do.
"It's a shame that something like this had to happen, but maybe it's something that can change the sport," he said. "Maybe it's something that will help save us all."
Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com.
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