Escape Hatch? #98 BGN driver, Elton Sawyer, said Thursday that his team would begin work next week on developing an escape hatch through the car’s roof. A fiery crash last week (at Michigan, #15 Waltrip) showed that some safety items in Cup cars could cause problems. Most teams have netting or extended headrests on the right side of the seat to prevent a driver’s head from stretching too far in an accident. That proved to be an obstacle for Michael Waltrip. His Cup car crashed and came to rest with the driver’s side pinned against the outside wall. A fire started in the car’s rear and Waltrip climbed through bars and protective devices to climb out the right-side window. The incident came a few weeks after Ricky Rudd suggested in a meeting that stock cars should have a flap in the roof similar to funny cars in drag racing that give a driver another escape avenue. “It was kind of laughed about,” Sawyer said of Rudd’s suggestion in the meeting for drivers, crew chiefs and car owners. “I sat there and said, ‘Wow that makes sense.’ We’re going to take a car at the shop and come up with a (roof) piece. You’ve got to start somewhere.”(Racing Extra)(8-24-2001)
