DOVER, Del. — One of the biggest criticisms of NASCAR has been its inability for swift change, the inability to, for lack of a better term, shift gears at a moment’s notice.
The sanctioning body appears to be working on that and yet at times it doesn’t appear to make changes quickly enough. That was evident Friday at Dover International Speedway in so many ways.
Cars crashed into a frontstretch wall void of a SAFER Barrier in Sprint Cup practice. While strange that a track doesn’t have an energy-absorbing barrier on the frontstretch outside wall, Dover does have a narrow racing groove up against the wall in that area. It makes sense that when deciding where to put SAFER Barrier, NASCAR wanted the track to concentrate on the inside of Turn 3, where only a guardrail existed.
But that didn’t look good when Tony Stewart and Jamie McMurray spun in oil dumped by Danica Patrick‘s car in the opening minutes of practice Friday. They slammed into the unprotected wall.
NASCAR and the tracks have been busy trying to get more SAFER Barrier in place since a concrete wall broke Kyle Busch‘s right leg and left foot in an accident last year at Daytona International Speedway. Yet it appears they still haven’t moved fast enough or still feel their safety analysis shows some walls don’t need SAFER Barrier because the risk is so low of hitting the wall or the potential rebound of the car could put the driver in a more precarious position or it impacts the racing groove so much that it causes other concerns.
NASCAR acknowledges that Dover presents “some unique challenges” on its frontstretch and backstretch walls, giving a statement that said,”Safety is always our top priority and we continue to work diligently together with all tracks to make sure we’re making the right adjustments on that front. Dover has some unique challenges on both the front and back stretches. As we do following every event, we will review all on-track incidents and make improvements where necessary.”
Not that such an explanation would appease drivers who want them everywhere.
“It would alter the line slightly here, but we go pretty fast here, especially in qualifying trim,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said in support of more SAFER Barriers. “I’m in the gas in the center of the corner, full-throttle, not lifting — so it would be a hard lick.”
Another area where NASCAR is trying to move more quickly are rules, and it appears to be more successful at changing things when it feels the need. When Stewart complained loudly about the lug-nut rules, NASCAR reacted.
It might have been an overreaction, and the penalty created — a crew-chief suspension for a lug nut not “safe and secure” — appeared to be harsh for such a vague requirement. Kyle Busch’s crew chief Adam Stevens is home because of the rule as the team didn’t tighten all five lug nuts on the winning car last week at Kansas.
More behind the scenes are the changes to the aero rules to try to improve the already much-better racing this season. There have been minor tweaks a few times this year, and it sounds as if there will be more set for the Sprint All-Star Race next week.
“It seems everything is changing for that race — we have race cars and the format is different,” said Joey Logano when asked about the All-Star Race. “I am sure you guys in the media center will be plenty busy with plenty to write about.”
In light of the Logano remarks, it would seem that the NASCSAR drivers know something that hasn’t been announced. NASCAR won’t confirm nor deny that it will introduce new rules for the Sprint All-Star Race, but the garage is buzzing about a potential change that will impact the aerodynamics and side forces of the car.
It wasn’t clear if the changes Logano alluded to will be for the All-Star Race this year, will be used in points events or looking ahead to 2017. NASCAR last year had hoped to experiment with some new rules for 2016 at the 2015 All-Star Race and then scrapped that decision.
NASCAR made rules clarifying areas of brake duct work in recent weeks that could impact how the car handles.
“NASCAR is doing all the things that they’re doing; hopefully it will get the whole field a lot closer,” Cup team owner Richard Childress said earlier in the week.
It shouldn’t be too surprising that NASCAR has had to tweak the reduced downforce package. As with any new rules package, teams expose areas quickly and there are rules that just need to be buttoned up as well.
In other words, sometimes NASCAR won’t know an issue until it starts playing the game.
The same can’t be said, though, of SAFER Barriers. As much as it sounds reasonable not to have them in a spot — even six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said Friday that he understood why there are no soft walls on the narrow frontstretch and backstretch at Dover — drivers still find a way to crash in the most uncommon locations.
When a driver gets injured, they often talk about a “perfect storm” of events that happens. They expose the flaws.
For NASCAR, it needs to continue to battle those flaws as quickly as possible. It was apparent Friday that change is in the air — and the challenge to implement change in a timely manner continues.
