Safety measures have worked in NASCAR, but have they taken away an element of danger?
Posted Feb 15, 2010
By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 14, 2010
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. — It was here on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway that NASCAR’s seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt was killed in a last-lap crash during the 2001 Daytona 500. In the years since, NASCAR has invested millions of dollars and untold engineering expertise in making its brand of stock-car racing safer.
Largely because of its radically redesigned racecar, more forgiving track walls and mandatory head-and-neck restraints, there hasn’t been a death in NASCAR’s top series since, though there have been plenty of wild crashes. Over the same time, growing ranks of race fans have groused that the racing has gotten boring.
As NASCAR officials search for ways to inject new life in what was the fastest-growing sport in America just a decade ago, some are privately wondering whether stock-car racing simply isn’t as compelling in the minds of fans now that the element of danger — or, at least, the perception of danger — has been removed.
No fan, of course, wants to see a racecar driver get killed or seriously injured. The mere suggestion that NASCAR loyalists come to see wrecks raises hackles.
Fans come to see the close competition, they’ll testify. They come to see Earnhardt’s son, known universally as “Junior,” beat the pants off Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. They come for the ear-splitting noise and raw speed.
