Soft Walls or Soft Heads?

NASCAR tentatively okays SAFER walls at Indy, Pontiac gets a little help, and the Sirius 400 from Michigan.

Soft Walls Or Soft Heads ..........?

Okay, to begin with, I've already been raked over the coals from a reader in the New England area who wrote in and said that the new SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) are not soft walls. Whatever. NASCAR, and the people at Indianapolis Motor Speedway call them 'soft walls' so I will to. Let's face it, they are a lot softer on impact than concrete!

So, I read that the sanctioning body said no this past week to installing the SAFER system at the New Hampshire International Speedway. The owners of the track had reported that they were planning on having them installed before the NASCAR events were held there this season.

On the other hand, I also read later that day that NASCAR said that they would sanction the SAFER walls at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. What a bunch of crap! MASCAR has been doing their homework. They have learned to use the examples of big brother to make the most out of their press releases. They will sanction the walls at Indy, because they are already there, and taking them down before the Winston Cup race would be too costly, and NASCAR would have to foot the bill. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize why they are saying that the walls at Indy will be okay for the Winston Cup Indy race.

I've read varying reports about the reasons that the New Hampshire track wasn't given the go ahead to install the SAFER walls. They claim that they have not been properly tested yet for the heavier Winston Cup cars. Some reports claim that the Indy cars that have crashed into the walls weigh as much as 2000 pounds and that Winston Cup cars weigh 3600 pounds. Let's get this right. The Indy cars are supposed to weigh 1550 pounds minimum, without fuel or driver. The Winston Cup cars are built to a 3100 pound specification and are weighed to exactly 3400 pounds including the driver, before they are allowed to compete after the pre-race inspection process. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is supposed to be adding ten inches to the foam barriers behind the tubular steel rails before the Brickyard 400. This is being done in hopes of giving the SAFER system more strength to be able to absorb the impact of the heavier 3400 pound Winston Cup cars.

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