Fences were significantly damaged in Thursday’s Truck Series race
SPARTA, Ky. — Track officials completed repairs to a damaged catch fence at Kentucky Speedway early Friday morning after a severe crash in Thursday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.
Ben Kennedy‘s Red Horse Racing No. 11 Toyota made contact with two other trucks, then became airborne, clipping the catch fence and the energy-absorbing SAFER barrier as the truck rode along the outside retaining wall in Turn 1 before coming to rest.
No debris was reported in spectator areas, and Kennedy emerged shaken but unhurt. The race was halted five laps short of the complete distance because of the damage, with two-time series champion Matt Crafton declared the winner.
A Kentucky Speedway spokesperson said that track workers spent 3 1/2 hours making repairs. A NASCAR representative said that 35 feet of catch fencing and two support posts were replaced, as were 15 “pyramids” — the impact-reducing foam blocks behind the steel-tubed exterior wall as part of the SAFER (Steel And Foam Energy Reduction) system. No other structural repairs were necessary for the SAFER barrier, the NASCAR spokesperson said.
One invested viewer was Sprint Cup Series regular Kyle Busch, whose team fielded three trucks in Thursday night’s UNOH 225. Busch said he was entertained by the quality of the racing, hoping that Saturday night’s Sprint Cup event emulated the slipping, sliding, multi-groove show.
Busch also lauded the sanctioning body’s progress in safety, but said that despite the improvements and extra measures, inherent danger still exists in the high-speed sport. Kennedy’s crash came on the heels of Austin Dillon‘s frightening wreck that severely damaged the Daytona International Speedway catch fence earlier in the week.
“As far as the catch fence and everything, I’m glad they’re there,” Busch said. “I’m glad they’re obviously doing their job, they’re keeping the race cars or trucks on the race track and so it’s a dangerous sport. We live it every day. Sometimes we take it for granted because of all the safety advancements we’ve gotten over the years that we feel invincible but there’s certainly rare, opportune times that you can put yourself in a situation to get hurt. We saw it in Daytona with myself, we saw it in Daytona again with Austin Dillon and we probably saw it again last night among other times. Those times just seem to be the most severe, the most scary crashes that we’ve seen.”