Auto Racing

Jimmy Creed: Even after findings, racing still dangerous

08-23-2001

TALLADEGA
The Dale Earnhardt investigation is finally complete, and not surprisingly, the results didn't reveal any smoking guns or pinpoint any exact cause of death.
NASCAR spent four months and close to $1 million to tell us what we knew within a week of the accident - that a lapbelt broke and that Earnhardt died from a violent impact caused by a car crash. We also know that black boxes are going to be mandatory next year, head-and-neck safety devices aren't and that nobody prods NASCAR to do anything except on its on time schedule.
But at last there is some finality to the situation and that's what has to be taken from Tuesday's briefing in Atlanta.
The time has come for those who are banging the drums, in and out of the sport, to move on and let the matter and the man rest in peace.
The plain and simple fact is that driving a racecar really fast is extremely dangerous. Always has been. Always will be. And while it's imperative to develop all the safety devices and precautions and protocols possible, no one is ever going to completely remove the X factor of death from the racing equation.
Drivers at every level across this country accept the fact that something could go fatally wrong every time they get behind the wheel, just as we accept it every time we get on a commercial airliner. And that's what has to be remembered. Just like when we book a ticket, those drivers know the risk and they still choose to go.
Are there lessons still to be learned from Dale Earnhardt's death? Absolutely. Are there still steps NASCAR needs to take to make the sport safer? Without a doubt, and Mike Helton and company need to press on with that task at every turn.
But to continue the crusade in the very public, confrontational manner it has been conducted to this point is a disservice to Earnhardt's family, to Richard Childress and to those who are ready to fondly remember how it was before the fateful day in February.
The reality is that no amount of computer modeling, accident reconstruction or crash testing can bring Earnhardt back. Unfortunately, it's also a reality that those things aren't going to prevent others from dying in auto racing crashes, either.
Someday, somewhere, a driver wearing a head-and-neck device, driving a car with the seat belts properly installed and equipped with a black box and impact-absorbing material will run into a soft wall and be killed. That's just the way racing is and those of us who don't climb in the cockpit have to accept it and quit trying to dictate policy to those who do.
Childress put it best after Tuesday's press conference.
"This has been a very painful process for a lot of us and I hope today's statement can bring some closure," Childress said. "All of us - owners, drivers, manufacturers and independent research groups - need to continue to work with NASCAR to ensure a strong future for our sport. I know Dale would want it that way."
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• LITTLE E RELENTS: At the urging of many of his fellow drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wore a head-and-neck device for the first time last Sunday in the Pepsi 400 at Michigan.
It was the Hutchens Device, an off-the-rack variation of the more popular Head and Neck System developed by Bob Hubbard and Jim Downing. Still, Downing was glad to know that "Little E" was finally wearing something, even it was a competitor's device.
"I thought it was great," Downing said. "I think he had honored the memory of his dad long enough on the way his dad raced and he needed to step up into the modern world. I think he's done that and that everybody appreciated it. The report was that a lot of the other drivers encouraged him to do that in a very strong way."
In all, 41 of the 43 drivers in the Pepsi 400 field wore some type of head-and-neck device.
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• COMPTON TO RCR?: Now that Childress has officially confirmed that Mike Skinner is out of the Lowe's car after this season, expect to hear Stacy Compton's name as Skinner's replacement.
Kodiak is out as the sponsor of the Harry Melling Dodge after this season and Melling has already given Compton permission to explore other possibilities for next season just in case a new sponsor isn't found. And you have to think Childress would be interested.
Compton is a talented young driver and one of the really good guys in Winston Cup racing. So it would be nice to see him catch on with a really top-tier team like RCR.