NASCAR is closer to a futuristic car that promises a safer ride for stock car racers and millions of drivers buying vehicles off the showroom floor. The fatal crashes in 2000 of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin in New Hampshire and Tony Roper in Texas led NASCAR to reach out to the best engineers it could find, and the Dale Earnhardt accident threw the project into high gear. There have been plenty of crashes since, some serious, but no deaths. And if NASCAR’s safety program keeps progressing as it has recently, the risks of deadly wrecks will keep going down. With the major car makers working on the program with NASCAR, it’s a good bet that some of those safety features will wind up on street cars. Practically every part of the car is being examined for ways to make it safer. New high-tech materials – a foam aluminum that resembles a sponge; a honeycomb metal that looks as if it came out of a mutant beehive; steel designed to bend and crinkle on impact – are under investigation. Improved “crush zones” would absorb energy in a crash to protect occupants. Better collapsible steering wheels, changes in the location of the oil tanks; refined gas, brake and clutch pedals; a new generation of shock absorbers and tires that will make cars easier to control; systems to prevent fires or suppress them – they’re all part of NASCAR’s overhaul.(FoxSports/AP)(2-8-2004)
