In the wake of Saturday’s tragic accident in New York that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr., racetracks all across the country are re-evaluating their safety rules regarding drivers leaving their cars following an accident.
Though many questions still remain concerning that awful event, much of the talk among the racing community about drivers exiting their racing machines to show displeasure toward another driver. Such displays have been commonplace among NASCAR drivers, particularly on the short tracks. Those antics trickle down to the local short tracks across the country.
Kerr approached Putnam’s car after the wreck.
Now, racetracks are considering new rules or are issuing new rules. On Monday night, at least four tracks issued new rules prohibiting drivers from exiting the car following a crash, unless the car is on fire or immediate danger persists. Kingsport (TN) Speedway is one of the tracks locally to implement a new rule. Will the rules go far enough to deter these actions?
Many of our tracks in east Tennessee already have rules in place disqualifying any driver that exits his or her car following an altercation with another car. In many instances, that driver already has a race car that is beyond repair. An instant disqualification means little except to forfeit any purse money for the night. Often times, a mad driver is not thinking about the few hundred dollars he or she would lose that night. Is that really much of a deterrentt?
Inside Dirt Racing has talked to a couple of area racetracks to see if any changes are being planned to this rule. One track is considering stiffening the penalty for any driver leaving their car, but no time table was given as to when such a change would take place. Others are still in discussions about any type of rule changes.
Another idea on the table is automatically throwing the red flag for any caution and parking the cars on the opposite end of the track of where the accident occurred. The thinking behind this is to keep the entire field away from the crash scene to prevent a disgruntled driver from getting into harm’s way and to allow safety crews to adequately cover the accident scene without dodging moving race cars.
Trent Cole tries to get to Jeff Wolfenbarger at SMS in 2012.
Many years ago, often times these disagreements would settled in the pits. Big fights would break out leaving some injured or even worse. Rules against fighting have put a serious dent into those types of altercations. Now, we see the on-track finger pointing, inappropriate gestures, and helmet tossed. Some promoters use such antics to hype up their racing events.
Unfortunately, it takes a tragic accident to bring about change in most forms of racing. Drivers can be their own worst enemy at times. Because of that, it then comes to the racetrack or the sanctioning body to implement rules to save the drivers from themselves.
Safety should also be extended to track officials. Often times, they are cleaning up an accident scene and have cars zipping by them to help dry up wet spots on the track. Both the on-track workers and officials in the tower need to pay extra attention to the clean up on the track.
It will be interesting to see what rules changes come about in the next few days, few weeks, or few months because of this tragic situation. Let us hope that all drivers, track workers, fans, and all others stay safe when visiting a nearby racetrack.
