Start your engines!
Play RPM.ESPN Stock Car Challenge!
Win a Honda S2000!
Play The CART Challenge powered by Honda!
|
|
Friday, August 24
Drivers police safety themselves
Associated Press
| |  | | | Spencer |
BRISTOL, Tenn.-- NASCAR won't force Winston Cup drivers to wear head and neck restraints. Peer pressure might.
Jimmy Spencer, one of the final two holdouts to wear a device, said his fellow competitors are pushing him to reconsider, and he might start wearing one as early as next week.
"It's public pressure, it comes from the drivers, from the
media, just about anybody in the garage," he said. "Is it fair? I
don't know. But it's good to be in a sport where the fellow driver
are concerned about other competitors."
In its report on the death of Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR declined to
mandate restraint systems but said it would encourage drivers to
use them.
Spencer, who joined Tony Stewart last week as the only two
drivers in the 43-car field not to wear a device, agreed with the
decision, and said there are just too many unknowns about the
devices for NASCAR to make them mandatory.
"If NASCAR mandates that and someone gets injured, then they've
got a big lawsuit on their hands," Spencer said. "If NASCAR
mandated gloves or a fire suit and I got burned in the car, I'd sue
them.
"That's what people have to realize -- this is a very risky
business and we know that when we get in that race car, we're
taking responsibility for ourselves."
Despite NASCAR's reluctance to require the devices, most drivers
already are -- as evidenced at Michigan International Speedway last
Sunday.
The latest holdout to reconsider was Dale Earnhardt Jr., who
donned a system of straps and belts called the Hutchens device
after drivers Terry Labonte, Dale Jarrett and others counseled him
on the benefits.
"Labonte was the first guy who said he wanted me to be around a
long time and that he really wanted me to wear it," Earnhardt Jr.
said. "I have a friend of mine that is a state trooper and he said
it's kind of like wearing his bulletproof vest -- you don't have to
wear it, but why not wear it while you can?"
But it's possible he could take it off before Saturday night's
Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, where speeds only average
125 mph around the .533-mile bullring.
Many drivers don't think they need the device on short tracks,
which is why Spencer is holding off a week to try one.
Stewart, meanwhile, has no intention of trying one anytime soon.
There are currently two devices drivers can choose from: the
HANS device, which is a similar to a set of shoulder pads but has
been met with some resistance because of limited mobility; and the
Hutchens device, which is a series of straps that hooks onto the
helmet and was designed this year by an engineer with Richard
Childress Racing.
Stewart doesn't like the HANS device because he finds it
uncomfortable and has too many questions about it. And he doesn't
like the Hutchens device because he thinks it hasn't been tested
enough.
"I think there are pros and cons to both of them. We know how
it will work in a forward impact, but we don't know about a side
impact or an angled impact," Stewart said. "I just don't think
it's the answer to all the problems and until I know more about it,
I'm not going to use one."
Spencer, who said his thick neck makes the HANS device
uncomfortable, cited concerns over it hampering a quick exit from
his car as one of the reasons he was against it.
That point was proven last week when Michael Waltrip crashed
during a practice session and his car came to a rest with the
drivers side pinned against the outside wall.
As the car caught fire, Waltrip struggled to get out of the car
and ultimately climbed through bars and protective devices to exit
out the right-side window.
Another reason Spencer is against the device is the fear of it
breaking his neck.
"Will it leave you crippled? Is it going leave you a vegetable?
If they had evidence of that, I'd never wear one," Spencer said.
"Personally speaking, if I'm in a bad accident and it takes my
life, then that's fine. I just don't want to become a vegetable and
I'm really concerned about that."
But he said he'll try one -- probably the Hutchens device -- and
driver Sterling Marlin can understand why.
"There's a lot of pressure out there right now," said Marlin,
who bought a Hutchens device for his 20-year-old son Steadman to
wear when he races. "You just can't take nothing for granted and
think, 'it's not going to happen to me."'
 Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
|
|
|
|
