Mark Martin crash at Michigan

Could have been a LOT worse. I'm sure we'll see a change in pit wall openings after this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxSxf6fpCHI

yesterday evening i got to walk the track for the ChumpCar race. those friggin' tire tracks go a long long long way. helps put their speed into perspective, seeing it at ground level.

2 things that caught my eye when it happen when i watched it on the dvr last weekend:

1) the wall between the track and pit road should extend all the way to the end of pit road- if it had, he would have probably bounced off that wall and back out towards the track, or at least not flown down pit road..

2) the wall that he did hit should have had an angled opening on it like any other opening out into the track- the car still would have been screwed up and Kasey Kahne's crew guys would still need new underwear, but the car would have bounced off and burned off more kinetic energy instead of coming to an instant stop after jamming a concrete wall 3 feet into the car less than a foot behind the driver and rupturing the oil tank.

but neither of those things were ever a problem until that moment, and NASCAR is really good at changing things for the better when someone inevitably finds the holes in the safety features of a track or in the cars themselves.

Mark Martin didn't seem too phased by it when he was interviewed a few minutes later- in fact, he seemed like the happiest guy in the world..

You can see that he ruptured the awl tank right on impact.

I saw the crash when I whatched the race.

The yesterday I visited the NASCAR display at the Saratoga Auto Museum Looking at what as raced in the '50's was scary. Herb Thomas's Fabulous Hudson Hornet looke like it came off the street and may have been driven to the races. They used a lap belt to hold them behind the wheel on the bench seats. Then looking at the cutaay of one of Penskies Dodges . Some difference.

The dog on the back of his car seemed awfully surprised.

For a minute, I though he was jumping in the driver's seat of the ambulance and heading back out!

Hell, back in the day that's how they all came into the pits!