Safety Issue at Tracks? NASCAR and Daytona officials will have to look very carefully this week at the safety operations at the track, because Saturday’s performance was not the finest hour for safety men, who left Brett Bodine’s fiery wreckage to burn to the ground and who couldn’t even find Dale Jarrett until he had already walked halfway back to the Winston Cup garage. It was an angry Jarrett who waved off the ambulance that finally reached him while he was well down the frontstretch, away from the crash site. It’s a good thing those two guys weren’t seriously injured. If NASCAR is going to continue running races at Daytona and Talladega that inevitably lead to mammoth wrecks, the sanctioning body should ensure that those tracks have adequate and trained safety personnel. AND NASCAR and Daytona executives will have to assess this week the ugly finish to Saturday’s race, when a number of fans in the second turn grandstands rained debris on the track while the cars were still running the final laps under caution. A number of drivers returned to the garage with cars dented by the flying debris. While the track’s perimeter security posts were well-manned, with men inspecting bags and car trunks, it is unclear just how many security people were working the grandstands. That dangerous deluge of cans and apparently some bottles during the final miles will certainly be a hot topic inside NASCAR headquarters here this week. Some drivers were outraged by the most irate spectators in the final moments. Others were angry too, but were still so shocked they didn’t know quite what to make of it, or quite what to say.(Winston Salem Journal)(7-8-2002)
