The 00 Crash and Burn!

If you are a NASCAR fan, by now you have seen Michael McDowells Texas Motor Speedway flip a hundred times. It is Monday evening and I am comfortably back home stuffed with a big salad, rib eye, and a Manhattan, but let me tell you, that crash will not leave my conscious memory for a long time. Our seats at TMS are in section 129, just past the pit exit and before the entrance to turn one. From that vantage point, we have seen every NASCAR event and missed only one IRL event there in the past 10 years. Nothing prepared us for the crash that unfolded right before our eyes Friday afternoon.

Like the poor guy from the “agony of defeat” Olympic ski jump that flubbed the takeoff, this crash will probably be shown for years. It was that spectacular. First, let me tell you what we saw. The 00 cars sails into turn one on the second of two qualifying laps, the driver trying hard to improve upon the first lap time. The simple truth is, he just overcooked the turn and when the back end stepped out to the right, he could have caught it, or spun out, or entered a long broad slide that may, or may not have ended up in contact with either the inside or the outside wall. It didn’t happen that way. Instead, the rear end snapped back to the left creating the unusual situation of spinning in towards the inside of the turn instead of spinning out.

At this point an eerie silence has gripped the track. Everyone in our section jumped to their feet and held their breath because it was clear that this was going to be a hard hit. With the engine silent, the car began its rotation to the inside of the turn accompanied by the loud hiss from the locked down tires. While it was spinning, momentum from the high cornering speed carried it straight up the track and the nose caught the safer barrier before the car had rotated 180 degrees. Standing maybe a hundred and fifty yards away, the crushing noise of the initial impact came to us almost instantly.

With no other cars on track, and everyone near turn one frozen in silence, the noise was loud and clear followed immediately by a similar crunch as the rear end whipped around and slammed the barrier slightly past a broadside impact. At the second impact, the car went airborne resulting in the rolling, bouncing, parts and flame shooting spectacle that has been broadcast over and over. It is difficult to describe the accident without recalling the paralyzing fear that we might be watching the final few seconds of life for that driver. Such was the impact and the violence of the scene playing out right in front of our eyes.

The car had finally come to rest against the inside wall of turn two and was no longer visible to us except on the big TV screen in the infield. I’m sure it was only seconds, but it seemed an eternity before a safety crew reached the car, and it was immediately clear that they were not in the emergency action mode they go into in the case of serious driver injury. They talked to him for a few seconds, and then the driver climbed out through the window, as normal as could be. It was only then that all of us standing on edge began to breathe again. Obviously it was only a fraction of what that driver felt, but we were all visibly shaken.

Ironically, just last week I praised NASCAR for the development of a much safer car. That should also be extended to include the safer barrier, or “soft wall”, the head and neck restraining system, the seat structure, and all associated features of the new car. With my own eyes, I have clearly seen the unequivocal results of that safety effort. There is no doubt whatsoever that with the “old” car, and a hard concrete wall, this accident would have resulted in driver injury, and not too very many years ago, it might well have been fatal.

I enjoy the excitement of auto racing in all of its forms and unfortunately accidents are inevitable, but I don’t ever want to see another one that up close and violent. Part of the enjoyment of racing is the vicarious feeling that given the opportunity “I could do that”, but I’m not so sure now. No other word but CRASH even comes close to describing the incident. It was just plain scary.