September 25, 2007

By Brian Watkins

Brian Watkins

The cars fly by on the track, engines roar, radios crackle and commentators share their view of the action below. At some point, the conversation turns to suspension and concrete and gone is the race, replaced by live camera footage of a shock absorber. What exciting thing is this shock absorber doing? Why absorbing shock of course. While a quick shot for 5-10 seconds might have been interesting, a long shot combined with live commentary explaining what we were seeing was more than a bit much, as were all the advertising stickers plastered within view of the “shock-cam”.

As we watched the shock in action on the large portion of the screen with the race (the reason we tuned in) relegated to the small portion, I kept waiting and waiting for them to let it go. When they finally cut from the underside of the car did they go back to the race? No. That would be too cliché. Instead, they cut from the race entirely and went once again to former Darrell Waltrip crew chief Tim Brewer and the amazing cut-away car.

Everything you didn’t want to know about NASCAR race cars and didn’t want to ask is now explained in detail by Mr. Brewer and the dismembered Chevrolet in the studio.

Don’t get me wrong. I find Tim’s knowledge of NASCAR vehicles interesting and informative. I even think the cut-away car has value. However, that value and his knowledge would better serve us before the race or as a segment in NASCAR Now, or even, God help us, as another reason for ESPN to plug it’s website during the race. As much as I hate seeing the ESPN NASCAR website graphic pop up on the screen, I’d prefer that more than leaving the race entirely to see Tim Brewers awful, awful shoes (ESPN needs to either pay him better or provide a wardrobe assistant) as he shows us how a driver uses a gas pedal.

Flying Tires

The stray tire incident Sunday that sent MWR gas man Art Harris to the hospital for observation raises some interesting questions. The biggest of these is to see if this incident will have an impact on penalties levied on teams who lose control of tires. Especially when a loose tire causes damage to another car, or as we saw at Dover, goes flying through the pits striking anything and anyone in its way.

Obviously this was not a case of intentional neglect or willful negligence. I don’t believe that any member of any pit crew would purposely let a tire roll away in the hopes of saving a few tenths of a second on their teams stop. By the same token, the incident at Dover could have just as easily killed a crew member- possibly more than one.

The fact that NASCAR implemented helmets for over the wall crew members starting with the 2002 season (following the incident where three of Ricky Rudd’s crew was injured by Ward Burton’s car at Homestead-Miami) has certainly made things just about as safe as they can get for crew members. Dover’s 35 MPH pit speed more than likely played a role in keeping things less tragic. Had the tire bounced off the front of a car traveling at a more traditional pit speed, family members and other unprotected crew behind the wall might have been hit.

NASCAR already has penalties in place for stray tires, though as most NASCAR penalties go, if and how they will be implemented is anyone’s guess. The interesting thing about any penalties resulting from this incident is that it was Michael Waltrip’s gas man that was struck, but the loose tire appears to have come from Dale Jarrett’s pit stall, also an Michael Waltrip Racing team. So MWR will receive a double whammy; an injured crew member and a possibly hefty fine.

Having never been a driver or on a pit crew, I won’t try and speculate as to what further steps can be taken to prevent tires from rolling away. One would think that between the crew members and NASCAR officials on the business side of the wall, a tire wouldn’t have much of a chance to get loose. Aside from adding a “tire catcher” position or tire carriers to physically carry used tires to the wall as opposed to rolling them away I can’t think of any other measures that would prevent Sunday’s incident from being repeated, possibly with a more deadly result.

If there are changes that could be implemented to make pit road safer, I’m certain NASCAR will work with the teams and the tracks to make sure those changes are made. While many of us do tend to knock the NASCAR money machine, they do have a habit of doing what they can to make the sport as safe as possible. Here’s hoping we don’t see anyone else carried off on a stretcher with “Goodyear” related injuries.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.