Don’t go soft on this one, guys

COMMENTARY

Energy absorbing barriers made their debut Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and after seeing their first application on a highlight reel Sunday night, I only have one thing to say.

	Dave Rodman

I hope the people charged with making a decision on whether to keep the SAFER barriers in place for August’s Brickyard 400 Winston Cup race at IMS hold firm in their resolve to truly make the sport as safe as it can be.

Even more than that, I hope other speedways are looking into using the barriers to cushion what formerly were unyielding concrete walls.

Officials from IMS, the Indy Racing League and NASCAR unveiled the “soft wall” units that were recently installed at the flat, 2.5-mile speedway on the eve of the opening of practice for the 86th Indianapolis 500.

Everyone knew the SAFER -- Steel and Foam Energy Reduction -- barriers, which basically consist of four steel tubes resembling guard rails welded on top of each other and installed in front of the venerable track’s concrete with polystyrene “cushions” between the two walls, would be tested on the first day of practice.

They were, by 1999 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year Robby McGehee. McGehee’s best lap of the day was better than 220 mph, so there’s no question that his impact was at a speed much greater than anything a stock car -- despite carrying more than double the weight of an Indy car -- will muster.

But the crash gave everyone something to think about. His notoriety wasn’t lost on McGehee, but he was glad to be around to consider his dubious distinction.

“I can tell you it’s not soft -- I hit hard,” he said. “But I can also assure you that I’m very glad it was there.”

Any crash is going to produce debris, and this one was no different. The half-hour clean-up time, track officials felt, could be streamlined by as much as half as they learned how to deal with the new technology.

Maybe the most troubling aspect of the crash was the hole the car punched in the bottom tube of the unit McGehee’s car initially hit; and the tear it created in the tube above it. In a crash, torn metal can act almost like a razor blade and depending on how these steel tubes behave, could raise a red flag with stock car officials.

NASCAR’s going to take its time making any decision, and they most definitely will watch very closely the entire month of May before delivering a verdict.

“We’ll monitor what happens,” NASCAR’s managing director of competition Gary Nelson said last week, “and we’ll go from there.”

But the bottom line was this: McGehee limped away from the husk of what had been a missile on wheels scant minutes before. And he was immediately clearheaded enough to know how hard he had hit, and how lucky he had been.

If you ask me, that makes the odds of dealing with the ramifications of the new barriers well worth it.

NOTE: Dave Rodman is a staff writer for NASCAR.com. The opinions listed here are those solely of the writer. To provide feedback to Dave, email him at dave.rodman@turner.com