NASCAR Officials explore safety options

Extinguishing fires is the No. 1 priority now.
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
LONG POND, Pa. -- Every Tuesday, NASCAR safety specialist Gary Nelson meets with engineers at the sanctioning body's $10 million research and development center to determine their safety priority list.
Incidents that forced Dale Jarrett, Ken Schrader, Bobby Labonte and Ryan Newman to bail out of flaming cars in recent weeks have pushed fire safety to the top of Nelson's list. Extinguishing fires is No. 1; roof escape hatches are No. 2.
NASCAR has not mandated any safety changes, and that upsets some competitors. So, what can be done?
"Not a whole lot, and that's the problem with it," said Newman, who suffered second-degree burns on his chin and neck when flames penetrated the driver's area after his engine blew at Michigan.
The inevitable
"These cars still have to carry fuel, and they have to carry a certain amount of fuel. You're going to have a bomb of some sort on board. It's just whether or not it's allowed to go off," he said.
"There are some things that can be done and should be done, as far as the fire extinguishers go. There's no justification for not having a fire extinguisher in the trunk, so if something does happen, a driver can ... pull a pin in the fuel cell area. There's always going to be fires as long as you have fuel and oil on board."
Nelson said there's a reason for NASCAR's deliberate pace.
"There's a lot of things that seem easy until you get into them, and then all of a sudden you realize that there's more to it than I thought," he said.
One such question is why Labonte's car caught fire when it backed into the wall two weeks ago at Chicagoland Speedway.
Four cars backed into the wall that weekend and didn't catch fire, including three that hit the wall harder than Labonte's car, Nelson said.
Fires also erupted when Jarrett and Schrader backed into the wall at Pocono in separate crashes last month.
Those recent accidents have sparked talk that NASCAR should hire a safety team that would travel to every Winston Cup race instead of relying on local fire crews employed by each track. NASCAR officials insist what tracks provide is sufficient.
"I'm praying for the day that I show up at the racetrack and we see a bunch of guys in uniforms that are the same guys we saw the week before and the week before that," series champion Tony Stewart said earlier this season.
Teams' responsibility
It almost doesn't matter who provides safety as long as NASCAR allows drivers to race back to the caution flag, delaying the release of safety equipment until the track is clear.
That means fire safety is up to the teams, at least for now.
Labonte's team discovered that the metal neck that sticks about 3 inches out of the fuel cell sheared off when he crashed. That allowed the cell -- filled to 22 gallons a few laps earlier -- to spray fuel and ignite. Last week, Labonte's team replaced the metal piece with additional tubing that is more flexible.
The team also connected a second hose to the fire extinguisher that sits behind the driver's seat. One hose goes to the driver's area, where Labonte can position the nozzle to spray on him. The other hose goes to the trunk.
Nelson won't divulge exactly what's caused the fires. He did say that the problem centers around the hoses that lead to and from the fuel cell.
On the horizon
So far, few teams have made modifications similar to what Labonte's team has done. Changes could be coming. NASCAR is looking at a second fire extinguisher in the cars. Nelson is encouraged with the progress of the escape hatch and said it could be implemented soon.
The hatch would allow drivers to climb through the roof, giving them a second exit when the driver's-side door is not available.
Schrader recently examined the hatch. He said it will be valuable if the driver's side of a car rests against the wall, preventing the driver from exiting that way. Otherwise, he's not so sure.
"I don't see it as a solve-all," he said. "But, I don't see where we've got a major problem, either."