Crash has Gordon wanting safety upgrades at LVMS

LAS VEGAS -- Jeff Gordon saw the hole in his racecar where only seconds earlier a radiator had been, saw the pieces of his No. 24 Chevrolet strewn down the backstretch, and felt the blow of the big impact in his chest. And then he wondered, in this age of safety advances, why such a tremendous crash had to happen.

The four-time champion made contact with Matt Kenseth four laps from the finish of Sunday's Sprint Cup event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, triggering an incident that knocked two prime contenders out of the running in the UAW-Dodge 400 (watch video). But Gordon's bigger concern was why the curved portion of the inside backstretch wall that he hit wasn't covered with the energy-absorbent materials used at most other parts of the track.

Jeff Gordon

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"I'm really disappointed right now in this speedway for not having a soft wall back there, and even being able to get to that part of the wall shouldn't happen," Gordon said after emerging from the track's care center (watch video). "But I'm more thankful that I've got an awesome team ... that built a safe racecar. I'll tell you what, a few years ago, those types hits, you wouldn't be standing here."

Gordon spun out after he nipped the back end of Kenseth's car during a furious restart. The backstretch wall has an opening inside of Turn 2 to allow for infield access, and Gordon's car hammered the wall right at the far corner of that opening. There was no Steel and Foam Energy-Reduction (SAFER) barrier there to protect him. Gordon emerged from the crash gingerly, after needing a few minutes to catch his breath.

"Probably the hardest I've ever hit," said Gordon, who added that he'd likely be sore for the next few days. And track owner Bruton Smith or general manager Chris Powell shouldn't be surprised if they receive a call from Gordon sometime in the near future.

"I would love to talk to them, because I'll tell you what, that type of hit shouldn't happen," Gordon said. "It's uncalled for. There is no reason why any track we go to should have that. That could have been very bad. I'm just glad it turned out OK."

Greg Biffle, who finished third, agreed.

"There shouldn't be any gaps anywhere," he said. "There should be SAFER barriers all the way around the inside and outside of these racetracks. You look at the percentage of crashes that happen on the inside walls versus the outside walls, they're petty dang close. So why not have them on the inside, the SAFER barriers. It's not that hard to do. You can't say we don't have the time or the money to do it, because we're coming back here and we're going to race again."

To the drivers, the opening in the backstretch wall is as glaring a deficiency as the lack of a barrier. "They've got to quit this stepping the wall out," Biffle said. "They need to run the one wall way past the other wall with about a 12-foot alleyway so the walls are both flat. They always stop [one] wall and make [another] wall come out. Well, [the corner] is 90 degrees. You can hit the thing head-on. Coming from a 30-degree angle on the track, you can hit the thing head-on. They need to fix that."

Track spokesman Jeff Motley said speedway executives will begin reviewing the situation Monday morning, and will make any changes NASCAR recommends. "Ever since the entire SAFER barrier project went into play, we've worked with NASCAR and done whatever NASCAR wanted us to do," Motley said, "and we will do that again in this case."

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the sanctioning body will examine the issue, "particularly in the area of [wall] openings," he said. "This is a pretty rare area. But we'll certainly work with our consultants. If there are steps we can take to improve safety, we will always err on the side of greater safety."

The safety issue overshadowed a crash that took out drivers who were running second and third before the accident. It began when Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun his wheels and slowed on a restart. Kenseth passed him high, Gordon passed him low, and the Hendrick Motorsports driver wasn't clear of his Roush Fenway Racing rival when he tried to blend back into the high line.

"It was my fault," Gordon said. "We were all pushing so hard there. I got a little tight underneath Matt there and drifted up into him. I was trying to stay out of hitting him after he spun, and it just turned me sideways. I couldn't have hit the wall at a worse angle, and it really tore the thing up."

Even Biffle, who jumped from fifth to third after the accident, was surprised. "That was unlike Jeff Gordon," he said. "But everybody makes mistakes."

That's of little solace to Kenseth, who puttered into the garage while two of his teammates -- Biffle and eventual winner Carl Edwards -- celebrated high finishes.

"It's disappointing, but it all started on the restart," Kenseth said. "Jeff is kind of famous for laying back, and NASCAR has a rule that you can't lay back more than a car length or you'll be black-flagged, but it's usually not enforced, so I saw him laying back. I knew he was going to get a run on me, so I laid back a little bit. ... We came off [Turn] 2 and I was up as high as I thought I could, and Jeff just came across. Whether it was on purpose or not, it just kind of wiped us out."