Today’s 45th Daytona 500 likely will be the last one ever run with a silent, invisible enemy of NASCAR drivers: carbon-monoxide poisoning. A solution is near for a problem as old as stock-car racing itself, in which toxic fumes from front-mounted engines can turn enclosed driver compartments into gas chambers, especially if exhaust systems are damaged in crashes. Now, NASCAR chief technical officer Gary Nelson thinks technology is about to eradicate carbon-monoxide exposure. Nelson is hoping to have a device approved and ready to recommend to drivers for use in the spring. He said the system acts like a catalytic converter, which reduces emissions from passenger cars, but operates at a lower temperature so as not to increase heat in the driver compartments. Application of the technology is the result of studies begun last fall both at racetracks and at NASCAR’s new research and development facility near Charlotte. At least five drivers will be tested before and after today’s Daytona 500, according to Nelson, though he wouldn’t name them.( Orlando Seninel )(2-16-2003)
