DAYTONA BEACH Fla. - The theme in NASCAR for the past few years has been getting back to the roots of the sport. With a new ‘have at it boys’ attitude that allows drivers to let their emotions loose a bit more and a new style car in 2013 that will look more stock than then racecars have for decades, NASCAR is getting back to the roots many say the sport has lost in the last few years. The formula seems to be working. TV ratings are slowly climbing back up, more tickets are being sold and more people who have never seen NASCAR are starting to pay attention.
Could NASCAR do even more however?
Despite the recent success, there still seems to be an element missing that used to be commonplace in NASCAR. After Saturday nights Bud Shootout it looks like that element may also be making a comeback.
There was a time when NASCAR was a dangerous way to make a living. With very few safety measures, injuries, or worse, weren’t unheard of. But in the early days of the sport, that was one of the very things that attracted people to NASCAR, the element of danger that was always present.
NASCAR has gone to great lengths to improve the safety of their competitors. Since the tragic death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 2001, NASCAR has not lost a single driver in one of its top tier touring series during a race. The people who administer the sport have done everything in their power to make the sport of NASCAR as a safe as possible. In the same time frame NASCAR also developed a new car, sanitized their drivers, moved race start times and moved away from older tracks. In hindsight some of the moves didn’t exactly pan out. TV ratings dropped and attendance did as well, although a sour economy had a large effect.
Although the basic premise of the racecar developed after Earnhardt’s death, called the Car of Tomorrow or COT, was for safety, the final product turned many fans off. With its big boxy look and wing on the back, many old school fans were in an uproar while those looking at NASCAR for the first time couldn’t figure out if they were looking at a Chevy a Ford, Dodge or a Toyota.
The other safety innovations NASCAR introduced in the decade since the Earnhardt tragedy, including SAFER barriers and the safety improvements made inside and outside the racecars have meant the drivers are safer than ever before. That doesn’t mean that drivers are still not in danger, but the chance of serious injury or worse is less than at any other time in history.
The most severe injure that has happened in recent years was a broken ankle suffered by Brad Keselowksi last year in a practice crash at a non-NASCAR sanctioned track; a track without SAFER barriers.
NASCAR has tried to break up the tandem drafts that became the norm at Daytona in the past few seasons. The rules package NASCAR developed for Daytona was meant to prevent the two car draft and bring back the pack racing once common at Daytona and Talladega. Saturday night’s Bud Shootout showed that NASCAR seems to have succeeded. Much of the racing was in large packs and the two car breakaways were almost non-existent. But with the return of pack racing came something else not seen in NASCAR in a few years; the ‘big one’. The multi-car crashes that are an unfortunate part of pack racing. Saturday night several big crashes happened during the 75 lap event. The crashes took out a large part of the field and included Jeff Gordon talking a tumble inside a racecar for the first time in his long career.
While crashes are not a welcome sight during a race, the safety that NASCAR has put into the cars and the tracks means that the chance of a driver being seriously injured is very slight. But with the pack racing back at Daytona a certain element of danger has returned as well. One slight mistake can ignite the ‘big one’ and end a driver’s race on the back of a tow truck. It can make for an exciting race with edge of the seat tension that hasn’t been seen frequently in NASCAR.
The element of danger might be one that NASCAR needs and after seeing the racing Saturday night it may just be back.
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