The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • B8

8B Sunday, May 24, 2015 charlotteobserver.com The Charlotte Observer CONCORD Officials at Charlotte Motor Speedway began taking steps to make their track safer last year, and those efforts that took on more urgency in February af- ter Kyle Busch was injured in a wreck during the Xfinity race at Daytona. Busch suffered a compound fracture of his right leg and a mid- foot fracture of his left foot when his car slid across the infield grass and slammed into an inside wall that was not protected by SAFER barriers. Daytona International Speed- way president Joie Chitwood vowed after wreck that Daytona officials would cover of that track in SAFER barriers, a goal the man who created the SAFER walls be- lieves will be difficult for Chit- wood to achieve. Experts say time constraints and demands on the materials needed for the Steel and Foam En- ergy Reducing system will make it nearly impossible for tracks to get the SAFER barriers everywhere needed this season. But Marcus Smith, president of Charlotte Motor Speedway, says proud of the safety measures taken at the 1.5-mile track, which hosts the Coca-Cola 600 on Sun- day.

Since the start of 2014, workers have installed an additional 4,800 feet of SAFER walls and tire bar- riers the equivalent of 16 football fields at the Charlotte track. Several of top Sprint Cup drivers applauded the steps the sport has taken since accident, but expect more to be done in the future. have been some really positive things that come from a really unfortunate reigning Sprint Cup champion and current points leader Kevin Harvick said. know that there is a really big plan in place. You just go out and just put walls up.

think the planning and the or- ganization and everything that has gone through has been a full- court press since that A full review NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway officials met with Uni- versity of Nebraska engineers, who developed the SAFER bar- riers, in January 2014 to review the Charlotte track. Speedway workers began im- plementing the recom- mendations last year, but Smith said Charlotte officials decided to even after wreck at Daytona. According to a track spokes- man, approximately 2,900 feet of energy-absorbing SAFER walls has been installed in the past two years on the inside wall areas of Turns 1 and 2, the entrance to pit road and the backstretch, and along the outside walls near Turns 1 and 4. About 1,900 feet of tire barrier packs have been installed on the in- side wall areas of Turns 2, 3 and 4. Smith said the only areas not covered at the Charlotte track are the outside wall along the back- stretch, which engineers have said is not a high-risk area, and along pit road, where crews have to hustle over the walls for pit stops.

Dean Sicking, who created the SAFER barriers as director of the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at Nebraska, said tire barriers are less expensive than SAFER walls, which cost about $500 a foot, and can be installed more quickly. But Sicking said tire barriers can be effective, particularly on straight-ahead collisions such as long as reasonably sure that there be many glancing hits, then tire barriers are probably Sicking said. you start getting those oblique hits, then the tire barrier starts to fall down in a A Charlotte officials fashioned the tire barriers from old race tires held together by thick, rub- ber conveyor belts that were used at rock quarries. Smith pointed out the environmental benefits of reusing the old tires and conveyor belts, although Sicking said new belts would do a better job of ab- sorbing at the point of impact. That said, Sicking called the conveyor belts a addi- tion to tire Sicking is now at the University of Alabama-Birmingham work- ing on a football helmet design to reduce concussions.

But he and his former Nebraska colleagues still consult with NASCAR. Sicking says NASCAR needs to do concentrated study and de- tailed of every wall hit at all of its tracks over the past sever- al years to identify areas where tire barriers and SAFER walls should be installed. Complicating matters at each track are the unique wall angles along the straightaways and turns, as well as openings in walls that provide access to the track for safety and support vehicles. hard to get the barriers built and in place in a short amount of time. I think in the sec- ond half of the year, going to see a lot more SAFER barriers and different things Harvick said last week.

think the analysis of the dif- ferent walls that have odd shapes and angles to them, with the tire barriers, and listening to the ex- planations of what done to temporarily make those places better, is encouraging. an ongoing A week after Busch was injured, Jeff Gordon hit a wall at Atlanta Motor Speedway that was not protected by SAFER barriers, prompting the popular driver to rip NASCAR for not doing some- thing should have been done a long time But Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes officials have made an effort to improve safety, despite the time constraints. they fix the task completely due to timing, made some efforts to make it as safe as possible for us. So I appreciate Earnhardt said.

time we have an acci- dent, it really kind of kick-starts a new motive to do better and get safer equipment out there. And I think done a good job in response to what happened to Kyle in got the best Smith, the son of Speedway Motorsports owner and longtime CEO Bruton Smith, is a former Legends Car driver who is friend- ly with many of the drivers. Smith declined to discuss how much Charlotte Motor Speedway has spent on the SAFER walls and tire barriers. But he is pleased with the safety measures. put our best foot for- ward.

I feel like I can feel really confident that got the best situation for all of those drivers that are going to be out Smith said. friends. I res- pect them a lot. Our families know each other, so I want anything to happen to Sprint Cup driver David Ragan said he sustained a concussion at Watkins Glen in 2011 when he slammed into a guard rail at the road course in upstate New York. Ragan says the wreck made him appreciate efforts to get energy-absorbing barriers on the walls.

think any time you hit the wall hard and you hit a SAFER barrier, you count your blessings for Ragan said. seen some different, belt-type absorb- ent material put on some of the walls. a step in the right barriers, some- thing that maybe takes some time to put in place and order. There may be a certain number of com- panies that install that. So I give thanks to Marcus Smith and his staff here for trying to be creative.

doing something is better than nothing at Person: 704-358-5123; Twitter: Charlotte adding safety measures JEFF SINER Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord added SAFER barriers and tires ahead of Sunday's Coca-Cola 600. The tire barriers, one expert says, could be better in areas where glancing blows are unlikely. Harvick, others laud move to reduce crash impacts with SAFER walls, barriers By Joseph Person Charlotte Race Weeks after he hit an outside wall on the last lap of the Daytona 500 tracks throughout top series have been obligated to install SAFER barriers at least in the corners. But NASCAR does not make the tracks turn every inside and outside wall into a even though high-profile driv- ers such as Jeff Gordon have al- so advocated that approach. In- stead, tracks evaluate the issue on a case-by-case basis along with NASCAR and engineers from the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which makes recommendations on which walls at each track are most likely to be hit and would most benefit from soft walls.

The problem is most acute at superspeedways of 1.5 or more miles, because cars reach faster speeds there, and there is more square footage to cover. Tracks have been improving their coverage steadily, but parts of walls remain unpro- tected at most every large track. Gate and fence configu- rations also can pose a problem. A spokesman for Charlotte Motor Speedway said the track has installed 4,800 linear feet of additional SAFER wall and tire barriers since the first quarter of 2014. That is significant 4,800 feet is the length of 16 football fields if you in- clude the end zones.

Other tracks owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc. have also been making safety enhance- ments. Michigan International Speedway just added a lot of SAFER barriers, too, with more planned. And drivers as a whole com- pete in a much safer environ- ment than they did in 2001 when Earnhardt was killed, in large part because of better seats and head restraints. No driver has died in top series since Earnhardt in 2001.

Still, accidents happen. The day before this Daytona 500, in the Xfinity Se- ries opener, Kyle Busch hit a wall at Daytona International Speedway that was not protect- ed by a SAFER barrier. Busch broke his right leg and his left foot and missed three months of racing (Busch has returned to the track and will race in Coca-Cola 600). Remorseful Daytona presi- dent Joie Chitwood III apol- ogized that night in February at a news conference, saying the track did not up to its and that it would the He said every inch at Daytona will eventually be covered with SAFER barriers. There was an emotional out- pouring in support of Busch right after his accident, as sev- eral drivers took to Twitter to berate NASCAR and Daytona for not already having installed more soft walls.

A sampling: Jimmie Johnson: beyond me why we have soft walls Kasey Kahne: we do is wreck at Daytona and that massive wall has no safer bar- rier? Regan Smith: genuinely furious right now. Any wall in any of the top 3 series without safer barriers is INEXCUSA- BLE. Since then, though, human nature has taken over and the issue has died down because we had another high- profile driver hit a wall and get hurt. But it is only a matter of time. This is all about time, really.

Race tracks and NASCAR are acting like they have a whole lot of it to spare. They Fowler: Twitter: FOWLER from 1B PHOTOS BY JEFF SINER Kurt Busch stretches next to his car before practice Saturday. Busch will start 14th in Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Matt Kenseth is on the pole. FINAL PREPARATIONS At left, Aric Almirola watches as crewmen make adjustments to his car during practice on Saturday.

Above, NASCAR will commemorate Memorial Day before and during race..