LaJoie told NBC Sports that among additional areas that are being examined are the SAFER barrier, helmets and mouthguard accelerometers. LaJoie and Joey Logano, a fellow board member of the council, are spearheading the council’s safety efforts. “The impact didn’t look that hard, but NASCAR has a very big group of smart people working on that, and I’m sure they’re going to find answers to the questions we have.”Ĭorey LaJoie is on the Drivers Advisory Council that is led by NBC Sports analyst Jeff Burton.

“It is a bit concerning that the impact that our friend Kurt Busch had in Pocono had this kind of results,” Suarez said. Crazy how it works out.”ĭaniel Suarez remains confident that NASCAR will find solutions for the drivers. I look back at my hit at Atlanta, and numbers-wise that was the hardest hit of my career and I was ready to climb back the next day. “You never know which hit can trigger it, right? That happened to be the one. “Just unfortunate for Kurt,” 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace said. Denny Hamlin, co-owner of Busch’s car, said that Busch “has taken a lot of hits over 25 Gs.

There is a belief in the garage that a series of impacts this year for Busch contributed to his injury. … We’re always investigating (the car), looking at how it performs on the racetrack and see what we can do better.”ĭrivers became more vocal this weekend about safety after Busch’s accident at Pocono. We just shared with the drivers some simulation work we’ve done for rear impacts, looking at car structure. “We are actively looking at ways, we’re always looking at ways to make things better. “The car is not off-limits,” Patalak told NBC Sports about possible safety improvements. Busch also backed into the wall at Pocono before his car snapped and made a second impact on the right side. It just felt like somebody hit you with a hammer.”Ĭhristopher Bell said he had a headache after he backed into the wall in the All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway in May. “When I crashed it (at Auto Club Speedway in practice), I thought the car was destroyed and it barely backed the bumper off. “From the get-go, everybody could see that this car was way too stiff,” Harvick said. Changes to the rear have stiffened some areas compared to the previous car. Drivers acknowledge that but say they are feeling the impacts more.Ī particular concern is when a car backs into the wall. John Patalak, managing director of safety engineering for NASCAR, told NBC Sports earlier this month that crash data this year looks similar to past years. There’s a lot of newness with this car that takes some getting used to, but we’ve not going to have an unsafe car on the race track.” I don’t know if I agree with some of the evaluations of it from the drivers’ perspective.

We’re halfway or better through the season. A lot of people were involved with us on this Next Gen car. We’re going to make a car that puts on a good race. NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton told NBC Sports on Sunday morning: “We’re going to make a safe race car. It doesn’t seem to be a high enough priority to me.” … I don’t think anybody really understands, except for the drivers that have crashed into something, the violence that comes in the car. “I don’t think they understand the extent of it and actually the extent of how bad it is when you hit stuff. I know that everybody will tell you that they’re working on it. “The concerns that the drivers have just haven’t seemed to resonate into a really, really quick response into trying to makethat better,” Harvick said. More drivers spoke up about the matter Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Some drivers told NBC Sports last month that they felt harder impacts this year with the Next Gen car than with the previous car. INDIANAPOLIS - Kevin Harvick questions how much NASCAR is prioritizing safety in light of driver complaints about feeling harder impacts this year and Kurt Busch missing his second consecutive race due to concussion-like symptoms.īut the lead safety official for NASCAR says “we’re always looking at ways to make things better.”

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