NASCAR will implement structural enhancements to vehicles competing in the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series next season for races at its two biggest facilities, Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, in an effort to provide additional protection to its competitors.
A rules bulletin to teams Thursday detailed the safety measures which affect the front firewall and foot box areas, rear roll cage area behind the driver as well as along the left side door area of the driver’s compartment.
Referred to as anti-intrusion panels, the thickness of the pieces has been increased for additional strength and to allow each to be welded more significantly, according to officials.
The structural changes, part of NASCAR’s on-going comprehensive safety initiative, strengthen the interior area of the car surrounding the driver.
“We’ve been doing a very significant body of work over the last year and a half,” Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR Vice President of Innovation and Racing Development, said Thursday. “… We’ve done quite a bit of analysis, crash testing and we’ve come to the point now that we believe that the package is mature and we want to introduce it.
The changes impact existing pieces already in use with one minor exception — a new piece of material has been added behind the driver that extends from the existing anti-intrusion plating on the door bars into the rear sub frame.
The changes are not expected to adversely affect the weight of the vehicle or change center of gravity, impacting balance.
“Basically we are making the structure that encapsulates the driver more robust and susceptible to manage energy in a better way,” Stefanyshyn said.
“It’s been implemented … with the teams so that it can be done in the most efficient, quickest and easiest way.”
By making the enhancements optional for 2016, they could be implemented for this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega, the only remaining event to be held on a superspeedway. The new pieces will be mandatory on superspeedways for 2017 and likely for all events in ’18.
Defending Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch suffered a broken right leg and fractured left foot in February of 2015 when his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota struck a wall front-end first during an XFINITY Series race at Daytona. Busch missed the first 11 points races of the season due to the injuries.
The area of impact in the Busch crash was not protected by SAFER barrier at the time; it has since been added. SAFER barrier is a softer, energy-dissipating material mounted on the track wall.
Earlier this year, driver Danica Patrick was involved in a similar crash at Talladega, however the wall was protected by SAFER barrier. Other than bruising and some soreness, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver was not injured.
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Even with the SAFER barrier, Patrick’s impact bent the gas, brake and clutch pedals inside her No. 10 Chevrolet and according to Greg Zipadelli, Vice President of Competition for SHR, “the steering column was moved a ton.
“But it was intact,” he said a week after the incident.
“They’ve been talking about doing some work in the foot box (area); I think this is the perfect case of what happened. Would that help? I think it probably would have. I think she’s lucky she has short legs. Her feet got banged up but once she got going in that direction, she said she just kind of picked her feet up.”
Patrick underwent x-rays in the infield care center at Talladega and told FOX Sports 1 a week later when the series was at Kansas Speedway that she felt “totally fine.”
“I’ve got a couple of bruises; my arm came across and bent the steering wheel,” she said. “My foot went past the clutch pedal and came back on (after hitting the wall) … I’ve got a couple of bruises but I feel really good.”
Zipadelli said the sport “has come a long way” in the area of safety.
“You think about what happened a bunch of years ago, compare these cars,” he said. “We’re going faster; these guys are hauling the mail every place we go now. When they do wreck, knock on wood, there aren’t many complaints. I think they’ve done a really good job.”