NASCAR's concern over safety foam still burns

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Crewmen pulled pieces of melted foam padding out of the side of the No. 29 car, which smelled like a fireplace after the embers had been put out. Yellow dust covered the floor of the vehicle, and a hole had been burned in the right side. Meanwhile Kevin Harvick stormed out of Martinsville Speedway, his race ended by material meant to keep him safe.

"I mean, this thing just started burning up," he said. "It's almost turning into a joke now."

For NASCAR, it's turning into the most challenging aspect of the Car of Tomorrow -- protective foam meant to absorb side impacts, but instead burning or melting because of close proximity to heated tailpipes. Three teams reported problems last weekend, when the new vehicle debuted at Bristol, Tenn. Sunday, the foam in Harvick's car started melting for reasons officials are still trying to figure out.

The foam melted despite a heat shield installed in the right side of the car. A NASCAR spokesman said the sanctioning body will bring either the car or parts of the car to the series Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., for examination Monday.

"We had three last week, and one obviously this week. If it's as big of a problem as I think it is, we've got to find out why and stop it, obviously," said Nextel Cup director John Darby. "But there were a whole lot more cars that didn't [have it] than did, and that's a good thing."

Drivers and crews continued to learn more about the new vehicle, which will sit out the April 15 event at Texas and return for the April 21 race at Phoenix. As it is right now, it tends to struggle in traffic and flourish in clean air. Its matched-height front and rear bumpers, different from the uneven bumpers on the old car, make it more difficult to nudge a competitor out of the way.

And the absorbent foam is subject to melting or catching fire, despite teams' attempts to install barriers between it and tailpipes. Last week, ruptured or broken tailpipes caused foam to burn and noxious fumes to invade the cockpits of drivers Matt Kenseth and Brian Vickers. In response, NASCAR asked teams to construct their tailpipes out of thicker material for the Martinsville event.

But Harvick's crew chief said Sunday that there were no obvious cracks to the exhaust pipes on the No. 29 car.

"I'm not real smart, but at the end of the day, you put [foam] over a fire, and it ain't going to be great, no matter where you put it," Todd Berrier said. "Heat rises, so how far we gotta raise it? I'm not very smart when it comes to that, but I'm smart enough to know that [foam] melts." (Continued)