LVMS looking at wall where Gordon crashed
Quote selected text Published March 3rd, 2008 in NASCAR News
Las Vegas Motor Speedway officials say they have begun “an evaluation” of the area of the track where Jeff Gordon crashed during Sunday’s UAW-Dodge 400.
Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet bounced off the inside wall along the backstretch on lap 262 after making contact with Roush Fenway Racing driver Matt Kenseth. The impact occurred where one of the few openings to the infield is located along the wall.
While the outer wall around the 1.5-mile speedway is lined with the SAFER barrier, like many tracks hosting Cup events, the inside walls at LVMS don’t include the barrier.
Gordon’s crash was so severe that his car’s radiator was dislodged and shot back across the track in front of oncoming traffic. The front end of the car was demolished, although Gordon was not injured.
“You need a soft wall [there],” Gordon said after being evaluated and released from the track’s infield care center. “Thankfully Hendrick
Motorsports … builds an unbelievable race car because that’s the hardest I’ve ever hit.”
Track General Manager Chris Powell said his group worked with NASCAR during the initial installation of the barrier in 2004 and would continue to work with the sanctioning body to address the situation.
“Whatever they recommend we do, we will do,” Powell said.
The SAFER barrier at Las Vegas was refurbished in 2006 when the track underwent a massive upgrade.
- Sprint Cup and Nationwide teams to test in preseason at LVMS
- Gordon critical of LVMS after hard crash into barrier
- Sprint Cup teams to test at Las Vegas
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- Hendrick slams LVMS for not having Safer Barrier, says they shouldn’t race there
What is there to evaluate? Just fix it, it’s not that hard.
I sure wish they would do this BEFORE someone destroys a car or gets nearly killed.
Oh dear God!! Once again, Gordon whines and they all jump. Who REALLY runs Nascar?
And they go bowing down to him again.
Yawn
Or gee.It could be the fact that Jeff cares a great deal about the sport and the safety of others and really wants to see this done so nobody gets what he was dealt.Hmmmm….YA THINK????
Nah, I don’t think. LOL ;p
Ok ok ok hold on people, your feelings for Gordon aside lets think about this for a second. Gordon makes a great point and why wouldn’t NASCAR want to do everything possible to have a safe race track. JR88fan I don’t have to tell you how much I hate HMS and how much I dislike JR and the nation right. But if it was the 88 Chevy in the wall and JR was saying the same thing I would be agreeing with him. When your right your right, its not whining and complaining. It’s about keep the driver’s safe, and not having a repeat of SR at Daytona. That was as hard of a hit as I’ve seen in a long time. Vegas is not the only track that needs to be addressed, every track where a driver can come in contact with an inside wall needs a safer barrier. There can be a hundred wrecks and nothing happens, but all it takes is one bad wreck where someone gets seriously hurt or even killed. I really hope NASCAR does something before it comes to that.
Whoa! Hold the horse back. I NEVER said that I wish Gordon would have gotten hurt. I of course LOVE the fact that he crashed when he was being pig headed and tried to punt someone and it backfired on him. That aside, as long as eveyone is ok, then fine. But, I don’t want him or others hurt.
I am not sure what to say Truexfan. I agree with you overall. BUT… I thought we went through all these safety issues/concerns WHEN Earnhardt Sr died. That is why everything was reevaluated and of course HANS devices became mandated not an option, etc. Why the safety barries started going up all over the place on tracks. And, I agree it only takes one time for things. I just don’t think that Gordon would be bitch-n had he not wrecked. This would be a NON issue as usual. Per the last 7 years it hasn’t been a problem. So if Gordon was SO friggen concerned over the walls not having the barrier, where has his OPINION on the matter been for 7 years been? That’s where I am standing. I just hate that he waits until now, to say something ONLY because HE was the guy that hit. And I honestly believe had it been Kenseth who hit that wall there instead of him. He would be saying….. NOTHING! Why? Because that’s Gordon. And that’s one of the things I don’t like about him.
This would just be a non issue. Do any of you really think this would be a discussion had it been Kenseth? No. It wouldn’t. But because it happened to Gordon, now its the blame game. Its just BS. My opinion on it.
this shouldnt even be a issue to talk about. nascar just needs to mandate a safer barrier on both the outside and inside wall. the last thing this sports needs is another dead driver. no matter who it is?
I didn’t see any of the other drivers saying anything about it, either. Of course Jeff said it because he was the one who took the hit. Just use your common sense. And, honestly, had Jr. not spun his tires on the restart, this probably wouldn’t have happened anyway…
Regardless of who hits the wall, whether you hate them or love them, I would hope we would all have the decency to back someone up when safety issues arise. After all, it could be your driver next time. And I doubt very seriously that you would call it whining.
Well,a problem cannot be evaluated until it occurs.How else are they supposed to continue on with the safety improvements if incidents do not occur?That is a no brainer.
As far as this only being looked at because Gordon said something.Duh.Of course it is because he said something.Had he not said a word about it,they may not have looked into it.Or they may have.The point here is the fact that he DID say something and as a result it may save a life.Had it been any other driver that said something,the same attention would have been put down.It is a matter of safety,not a popularity contest.
I heard about ten other drivers involved in interviews with media that brought the concern up as well.You can hate Gordon all you want but it is men like him who are helping shape the sport and influence the safety measures that are put in place.
If that is so bad than I think there are a few twisted so-called fans among us.
Plain and simple it’s a safety issue. The problem was brought in the open after a wreck. NASCAR has a bad problem with this, instead of being proactive, they’re reactive. The SR reference I made was an example of the HANS device like you said. NASCAR waited until someone died before they made the device mandatory. Is NASCAR going to wait until someone breaks their back or suffer a spin injury, or die before they address this issue? And out of all the 43 cars on the track, who ever took that lick would have said the same thing, I really do believe that. Just be glad it was a big name like Gordon who said it. Or maybe NASCAR wouldn’t have listened. Like I said above, I don’t care who you are in or what my feelings are about you as a driver and your race team. When your right, your right. You can’t argue with common sense, and making a track safer is just common sense.
How exactly would you call that whining? what because he cares about the safety of himself and other drivers,they do need the soft walls on the insides an and fix the angle of that wall thats the major problem.
Franco wrote:
That says it all. ( Jus gitter done ) BUT I would take all bets that that spot will never get hit again. This was a fluke hit.