A Phoenix Int'l Raceway official yesterday confirmed that the track "will have additional SAFER barriers installed along its inside walls, becoming the ninth NASCAR track since last year to either make revisions to or add the energy-absorbing barriers in new areas," according to Dustin Long of the ROANOKE TIMES. Jeff Gordon "slammed the driver's side of his Chevrolet into a concrete wall -- not protected by a SAFER barrier -- on the inside of the backstretch during" Saturday night's Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond Int'l Raceway (RIR). Gordon afterward said, "I think it is pretty well-known we need SAFER barriers everywhere.'' Long notes Gordon's comments "started a debate about why some tracks do not have SAFER barriers along their inside walls." The barriers, placed in front of concrete walls, are "credited with reducing G-forces in a crash," allowing drivers to "escape with minor or no injuries." Gordon's crash Saturday "marked at least the second time since 2008 that a car hit a similar spot of the backstretch inside wall at Richmond." The facility was "among the first tracks to have SAFER barriers installed along its outside walls after a spate of accidents injured drivers," but it "has not added any SAFER barriers since." RIR President Doug Fritz: "Money has nothing to do with the safety aspect. Our role is to make this facility as safe as it possibly can." NASCAR Research & Development Center Managing Dir Mike Fisher said in "an ideal world, you would want to cover every square inch of every racetrack in a SAFER barrier." But he noted that "adding a SAFER barrier could require reconfiguring the track, altering the walls and other engineering changes that take time" (ROANOKE TIMES, 5/4).
