Global Courant 2023-04-29 23:39:41
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Kyle Larson has survived near-death experiences on the track in a variety of racing series.
Even by those harrowing standards, the 2021 NASCAR champion still found the aftermath of Ryan Preece’s full-contact hit last week in Talladega “disturbing.”
It the support rods twisted and broken in the roll cage of Larson’s Chevrolet. Kyle Busch likened the wreck to a “brick being rammed into a stick of butter”.
Larson walked away. So did Preece. Both drivers are in good health and ready to race again on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway.
Larson, who drives for Hendrick Motorsports, was thankful the wreck wasn’t worse. The Next Gen car is entering its second NASCAR season and the organization is still making necessary changes to improve safety in an inherently dangerous sport.
“You see things that could have easily gotten me into the car, whether it was the bars that completely broke off and could have shaken me off,” Larson said on Saturday. “Or what if I had a second impact? I’m not knocking NASCAR at all. They worked really hard with this car to make it safer. I’m very thankful that they took both my car and Preece’s afterwards to take it deeper dive in and see how they can make it even safer.”
NASCAR’s ongoing investigation includes a re-creation of the crash through computer-aided design and viewing film from the in-car camera.
“It’s pretty clear that changes need to be made,” said reigning NASCAR champion Joey Logano. “I don’t know how you solve it.”
Logano and Busch were among several drivers who wondered if the accident could have been fatal if Larson had hit the driver’s door.
NASCAR said on Saturday that the driver’s side construction is “several times stronger than the right side.”
“In my opinion there is no other form of racing that takes safety more seriously than they do,” Larson said of NASCAR. “But that doesn’t mean the sport is safe.”
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At Talladega, Ross Chastain moved his car into the center for a third lane and his car bounced off Noah Gragson, who hit the wall to cause the crash. Larson was slammed into the grass and his car backfired into the middle of traffic, taking a hit from Preece. Preece’s helmet visor was flung open by the impact.
“It was probably one of the hardest hits I’ve ever taken in a race car, and I’ve hit walls with throttles hanging on concrete, concrete walls with dirt behind them,” Preece said.
Race safety was again a hot topic at Dover after the Talladega wreck and with Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman with a broken vertebra in a sprint car accident this week. Last year, Kurt Busch was forced to retire after crashing in July in qualifying due to a concussion and Alex Bowman also missed five races with a concussion after a September hit in Texas.
“I think people assume they’re much more likely to get hurt in a sprint car,” said Larson. “I would like to see the data that would prove that, because I don’t see it that way. We have drivers with concussions, we have drivers who break bones, I have broken bones in a Cup car.”
RAINY DAYS
A year after the Cup race at Dover was postponed to a Monday, the weather caused another change in the schedule: Saturday’s qualifying session rained out.
Kyle Busch starts on pole and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell joins him on the front row. Ford drivers took advantage of the rain, with Ryan Blaney starting third, followed by Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Chase Briscoe.
Heavy rain is forecast for Sunday and NASCAR bumped the green flag up an hour to 1:11 p.m. EDT
CHANCES AND ENDS
Larson is a 5-1 favorite to win Sunday, per FanDuel Sportsbook. … Keselowski hit 158.660 mph on the concrete mile course to top the morning’s lone workout. Larson and Byron followed on the map.
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