Talladega aftermath: what can NASCAR do?

It was wild, it was crazy, it was Talladega.

But after Sunday the type of racing we saw there may never be seen again.

The race had the breathtaking side-by-side three four and five wide action typical of Talladega. There was a huge crash early in the race, also known as the ‘big one’.

And a relatively unknown young man driving for a single car team scored his first Sprint Cup victory. A dramatic story and a memorable win.

Everything that happened on a great afternoon of racing though was overshadowed when on the final lap a racecar driven by Carl Edwards flew towards the grandstands and careened along the catchfence injuring several fans.

As Edwards, in the lead at the time, and Keselowski headed through the trioval on the last lap Edwards tried to block Keselowski several times. On the last block Edwards slid up, Keselowski was able to move under him and Edwards not realizing that the Keselowski Chevy was under him came down. Edwards’ Ford was sent tumbling into the air. After flying along the metal fence the car came back down on the track caught fire and slid to a stop short of the finish line.

Edwards got out of the car and physically ran across the line, he was scored 24th.

As soon as the dust settled, and those injured were taken care of, the calls for NASCAR to do something began.

"NASCAR puts us in this box and we'll race like this until we kill somebody and NASCAR will change it,” Edwards said soon after the accident. “Brad was doing everything he was supposed to be doing to win."

Sunday’s incident wasn’t the first of that type at NASCAR’s largest track. In May of 1987 legendary driver Bobby Allison took nearly the same ride along the fence. In that incident several fans also suffered minor injures.

It was the last time that NASCAR raced at Talladega without restrictor plates robbing the engines of power.

NASCAR’s reaction to the Allison crash changed the way racecars competed at Talladega and Daytona. No longer were there freight trains of cars pulling away from the field, or two or three drivers dominating an entire event.

Speeds were slowed and fans and officials felt safer.

There have been safety innovations in the racecars since then and the type or fencing used, but as Sunday proved no amount of fencing, or restrictor plates can make a racetrack totally safe for fans.

One issue that was raised by Edwards after Sunday’s incident was the out of bounds area defined by NASCAR at Talladega and Daytona. A double yellow line running around the bottom of the track that NASCAR has ruled to be out of bounds. According to the rule any car that advances their position by going below the yellow line is subject to being penalized.

Regan Smith, who finished 15th Sunday, had a victory at Talladega taken away last fall when he passed Tony Stewart below the yellow line just before the finish line in nearly the same spot as Sunday’s accident. Smith was relegated to 18th place Stewart went to victory lane. 

Sunday on the final stretch near the line when Edwards came down, Keselowski said he knew he wasn’t going to be able to move down or he would lose the race. 

”NASCAR puts us in a box,” Edwards said.  “If he drives below the line, he loses the race, so what’s a guy supposed to do?  So you end up having to wreck people or having to get second and none of us want to do that.”

And while many will join Edwards in calling for NASCAR to look at the yellow line rule after Sunday’s incident, one driver won’t be among them.

 “I kind of like the yellow line rule.  I think that the drivers have begun to understand what it means,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr.  “I think that you can't necessarily blame what happened at the finish of the race on the yellow line rule.  Guys have been running over each other for years.  So I mean guys get into each other way before we had yellow line rules.”

“But I like the rule, and I would hate to think that I had to block people on the apron and every which way to try to win the race on the last lap,” he added. “If that rule wasn't in place, you wouldn't know where to go to try to protect your position.”

The bottom line is that no matter if there are restrictor plates on the engines, an out of bounds rule or the latest in technological advances in fencing, motorsports in general are dangerous.  Not only for competitors and crewmembers but fans as well.

Driving a racecar or watching a race is inherently hazardous and no matter what’s done, or who blames who, people stand a risk of getting hurt. And while it’s a shame that any fan has to spend a night in a hospital because of something that happens on the track, the risk is there no matter what is done. The danger can only be minimized by track and NASCAR officials, never entirely eliminated.

 "I am worried about hurting somebody on my team, about hurting somebody -- and I'm talking about pit road and our crew men and mechanics,” said Edward’s car owner Jack Roush. “I carry a great burden, a great responsibility to keep my people safe and, in a broader sense, I feel a responsibility to do no harm to the spectator public. But this is a high-risk environment."

No one knows how NASCAR will react at this point, but if they do anything the fans should not forget that the risk will always be there no matter what.