#01-Jerry Nadeau’s driver’s-side crash didn’t resemble the head-on impacts involving Bobby Hamilton, Derrike Cope and Sterling Marlin last year at Richmond International Raceway. The accident, which put Nadeau in critical condition with head, rib and lung injuries, also was unique for its violence. The wreck ranked as the highest G-force spike reported by one of NASCAR’s “black boxes,” the data recorders installed at the beginning of the 2002 season to measure the impact of crashes by the force of gravity. “It was easily the hardest hit,” said Jim Hunter, NASCAR’s executive vice president for communications. “It was a whopper.” NASCAR doesn’t release the numbers recorded in impacts, but Nadeau’s crash easily exceeded the previous hardest hit of a reported 80 Gs by Kyle Petty’s car at Bristol Motor Speedway in March. The RIR wrecks involving Cope and Marlin reportedly topped 60 Gs, and Hamilton said he was told his truck crash into the Turn 1 wall at the 0.75-mile oval last September registered a hit of 58 Gs. “Jerry’s car did not have any chance to scrub off any speed,” Hunter said. “Normally you hit with a corner of a car. Kyle Petty hit with one corner and then the other before hitting sideways. In Jerry’s case, the car almost hit perfectly flat against the wall.” The driver’s side is one of the most vulnerable areas during a crash because there is little separating the cockpit from the concrete. Gary Nelson, who runs NASCAR’s Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., is working on a method to cushion the blow. Nelson is building a crash pad at the R&D Center to help gather data.( Richmond Times Dispatch )(5-11-2003)
