NASCAR is "talking to officials at Watkins Glen International about adding SAFER barriers and reconfiguring the angle of walls in key areas around the road course following Monday's Sprint Cup race in which there were two violent crashes," according to David Newton of ESPN.com. The governing body also is "discussing the situation with engineers at the University of Nebraska that designed" the SAFER barriers about "what can be done to improve safety." NASCAR President Mike Helton said, "There are some areas, the engineers from the University of Nebraska have told us, where the SAFER barriers could be worse. We just have to make sure we do it right.'' Newton noted several drivers "called for changes" following Monday's Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen. Driver David Ragan, whose car "bounced off a steel and tire barrier" at the end of the race, said, "I've been to some dirt tracks that have better walls than that." Driver Jeff Gordon, who has been calling for SAFER barriers at the track since '09, said, "You can't have walls like that, do you know what I mean? You're going to find those places eventually, so you gotta fix them" (ESPN.com, 8/16). Helton said, "What it may be safe to assume is that the configuration of what's there will be different" (SPEEDTV.com, 8/16).
LIKE A ROCK: ESPN The Magazine's Ryan McGee reported Rockingham Speedway, which hosted NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races from '65-'04, is "taking a huge step toward once again hosting big-league racing as SAFER 'soft wall' barriers will be installed next month." The system "will be installed in two phases, in mid-September and late December, covering all four turns of the one-mile oval and the inside of the backstretch wall." The "most common estimate of the SAFER barrier cost is $1 million per mile." NASCAR "requires racetracks to have the SAFER barrier in place before they can host one of the sanctioning body's top three national series." Rockingham, then known as North Carolina Motor Speedway, "hosted 78 Sprint Cup events and 42 Nationwide Series races, but it hasn't held a NASCAR event" since February '04 (ESPN.com, 8/16).
