The 2021 Running NASCAR/IMSA/other racing things thread

I've long been a fan of Schrader, but I feel awful for all he went through that day (and since). He has a good chance to finally win at Daytona plus end his long winless streak, then gets into a wreck. Goes to check on one friend (Earnhardt), jumps back because he knows the score. Then goes to victory lane to tell another friend (Waltrip) that "it ain't good." He's carried the details of what he saw in Earnhardt's cockpit inside. Last year when he was on the Dale Jr. Download, Jr. read him a letter thanking him for carrying that heavy load for the family. Powerful stuff.

 

The HANS device came out in 1991, the year McDuffie was killed. After each of the 9 deaths between McDuffie and Earnhardt, NASCAR kept coming up with excuses. Older drivers, subpar equipment, inexperienced drivers, Hoosier tires, freak deals, etc. The money started rolling in during the time period and NASCAR was going into new markets (Indy being a prime driver for making the sport more legit), so the focus was on the growth and growing the money. They didn't give a damn about safety, regardless of what the NASCAR apologists want to say. I recall the rumors (and think they certainly have validity) Bill France Jr. asked Earnhardt to make the anti-safety comments he did in 2000, but Earnhardt probably didn't need much pushing because he was against the advances.
Only Earnhardt dying in the 2001 Daytona 500 would have been enough to move the needle to force NASCAR to act in regards to safety. He was the respected garage leader, and other drivers yielded to him on topics, even safety. IIRC, only 5 drivers in that race had a HANS device (or the Hutchens device). He was against safety changes, so he had to be out of the way to make changes happen. I've felt from the start he knew he would be killed that day (there are several pieces of evidence to support that), and that he was okay with it. He knew he had backed himself into a corner by calling the HANS device a "damn noose," to say nothing of his kerosene rag comments. He couldn't/wouldn't back down because that wasn't his nature, and he had to live up to his reputation. On the other hand, he was a dad, which put him in an awkward position. When Earnhardt was killed, NASCAR hoped the furor would quickly go away, and settled on Simpson as the scape goat. But the topic didn't go away, so they had to come up with Plan B.
Oh, and the common narrative about Earnhardt's legacy being the safety advances? Sorry, but I call bullcrap on that lazy narrative. If he pushed for safety innovations, paid for such developments, begged NASCAR to make changes, etc. then maybe you could call improved safety his legacy. But he was steadfastly against any such advances. The changes only happened because NASCAR finally caved into pressure, and didn't have a strong voice in the garage anymore to resist changes. Which is a bit of an irony: NASCAR had no problem telling Earnhardt to pound sand when he bemoaned plate racing, even though he had sensible solutions. Yet when it came to safety, NASCAR let him have his way, even though he was old school, right down to the open face helmet and having his belts installed in a way that Simpson had warned would compromise their integrity. If you want to talk about Earnhardt's legacy, it's the hard nosed racing, being the one to watch (whether you loved or hated him), bridging the gap between the old pre-big money NASCAR days of Petty/DW/Cale and the Gordon/Dale Jr./JJ days to come, and playing a key role in bringing the money in by being the face of the sport.

 

Except for the part about Earnhardt knowing he was going to die in that car, it’s spot on. Also what Bill Simpson went through was BS. I feel like the anti-Simpson people were precursors to some of the Trumpsters: They refused to believe the facts.

 

Jim Downing was definitely testing the first HANS device in 1990 in IMSA Camel GT races, and I seem to recall seeing him wearing one in 1989. He and Bob Hubbard didn’t actually sell a HANS device until 1991.

And Bill Simpson got fucked by all involved after Earnhardt’s death.

 

Heck, Simpson lost control of the company that bore his name and had to start Impact.

 

Is the Hutchins device even around anymore?

 

People forget that Blaise Alexander died the same way in the Talladega Charlotte ARCA race in October 2001. His death was really the last straw for NASCAR (and by default ARCA as well). That’s when they came up with “Plan B,” as @murphyc put it, and mandated the HANS and Hutchens devices (which are both owned by the same company now — Simpson Performance Products, the company Bill Simpson resigned from after being unfairly blamed for Dale Earnhardt’s death).

I just looked for it, and I don’t see it for sale anywhere other than some sketchy New Zealand website. It always looked dubious to me.

 

Blaise died at Charlotte/Lowe’s after a crash with... Kerry Earnhardt.

Blaise Alexander killed at Charlotte

 

Yeah, I remembered that wrong.

 

Mike Joy came here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and he’s all out of bubble gum.

 

I saw somewhere that Noah Gragson kept dragging David Starr and Carl Long after he got caught up in a wreck with Starr over the weekend in Homestead. I checked his Twitter feed and can't find anything, so ...

Perhaps that's where Mike was going.

Doc Punch is the guest in Junior's podcast this week and it was worth the 90 minutes.