A senior NASCAR official calls it “unacceptable” that the concrete wall Ryan Blaney hit Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway was not protected by any energy-absorbing material and says the sanctioning body will address the situation.
NASCAR also will examine all other series tracks for exposed walls that need a SAFER barrier or some other type of energy-absorbing barrier.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, made the comments Tuesday on “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Blaney was upset that the wall inside Turn 1 at Nashville was not protected and called the impact the hardest of his career.
Asked on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about Blaney’s incident and why the wall was not protected, Sawyer said: “First of all, I echo Ryan’s thoughts. It’s unacceptable. I’ll start there. Why it wasn’t protected, I don’t have a great answer for you.”
NASCAR works the officials at the University of Nebraska’s Midwest Road Safety Facility on placement of SAFER barriers at tracks.
SAFER stands for Steel and Foam Energy Reduction barrier system. It is designed to absorb and reduce the forces in a crash to lessen injuries to drivers. The barrier was first used at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2002. The barrier is used at all paved oval tracks on the Cup circuit and in places at Cup road course events.
Officials with the Nebraska facility designed and tested the SAFER barrier and have been instrumental in its use and placement at tracks across the country and racing series.
“They will go with our team to these facilities, and they will walk around,” Sawyer said. “Some places are just obvious that you put SAFER (barriers) in this area — outside walls, inside the back straightaway at Nashville. … There’s some areas that basically are not designed or not positioned around the facility where it is conducive to put (SAFER barrier).
“In this case, the way the SAFER (barriers) are designed, from what I’ve been told you need about a 100-foot span (of a wall) to be able to use SAFER (barrier). This (wall at Nashville Blaney hit) is less than that.
“With that being said, there’s other options, whether it be sand barrels, whether that be tire barriers, something should have been there. We are taking a much deeper dive into that today, to look and see exactly what happened, why it wasn’t (there) and to take the steps, not only at Nashville but all our of venues, just to make sure we are checking all the boxes in that area.
“As we’ve said before, safety is not a destination, it is a journey. Whether that’s our facilities that we own or are owned by someone else, when we get there, it’s our responsibility to make sure those facilities are in compliance, not only for our competitors but our fans alike, and we will do that.
“Motorsports is inherently a dangerous sport, but we still have to do everything in our power to make sure that our athletes that we put out there to put on a great show for our fans, are in the best, safest possible situation that we can.”
