New car did its job as Sadler OK after violent crash
Crash raises more questions about safety measures at 2.5-mile track
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
August 2, 2010
LONG POND, Pa. -- "Thank God for the car and thank God that he's alive -- he's gonna be a little bit sore."
Elliott Sadler's crew chief, Todd Parrott, wasn't speaking for all the television viewers who'd just witnessed a graphically violent Cup Series accident at Pocono Raceway, which occurred with 35 laps left in Sunday's Sunoco Red Cross 500. But he could have been.
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Hard crashes
After getting turned by Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch goes for a wild ride and Elliott Sadler walks away after a violent smash.
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Sadler's No. 19 Ford had its engine and part of its front "clip," which holds the engine and front suspension, ripped off the car after it slid through the grass and impacted the inside guardrail just short of the 2.5-mile speedway's Turn 2.
Sadler was shown on ESPN's broadcast grimacing in pain in his car's cockpit before he climbed from the car unassisted, went down on one knee and then sprawled beside it on his back, his legs splayed.
A short time later, after an ambulance ride to the track's infield care center, Sadler looked a lot more haggard than he had on Saturday when he won the track's inaugural Truck Series race.
"I'm fine. I'm OK. I'm a little sore, I think, from where the belts grabbed me," Sadler said. "It knocked the breath out of me pretty good, but it's definitely the hardest hit I've ever had in a race car. These new cars are built to be safer and if I can get out of that and walk [away], I think it did its job."
The accident began when Kurt Busch was tagged from behind by Jimmie Johnson, who was trying to bump-draft him down the straightaway between Turns 1 and 2. The contact turned Busch into the outside wall, which he bounced off of and slid through infield's wet grass before he hit the guardrail flush with the left side of his car.
After leaving the care center, Busch was obviously incensed with Johnson, who apparently apologized on his in-car radio for the incident.
Behind that mess, Sadler reacted but was hit from behind by another car, which turned his Ford into the grass, and then head-on into the guardrail that's backed by a dirt embankment and at an angle to the race track, not parallel.
"I saw smoke and some cars sideways up in front of me," Sadler said. "I didn't know what happened until I just saw a replay in the infield care center, but they started stacking up in front of us and everybody started slowing down and I started slowing down, too, and somebody ran in the back of me.
"I have no idea [who]. Somebody just ran into the back of us and turned us inside through the wet grass into the guardrail, so I was along for the ride. It was a very hard hit. I'm a little sore through my chest and my stomach, but that's from where the seatbelts did their job and grabbed me and kept me in the car, so I'm thankful for that."
"The car obviously did its job," a relieved Parrott said after supervising the preparation of his used-up car to be removed from the track. "I walked out of the infield care center with a guy that, four or five years ago probably wouldn't have lived through that wreck, right there.
"Hat's off to NASCAR and all they've done with the safety stuff since Dale Earnhardt's tragedy [in 2001]. Elliott's a very lucky man, from what I see."
When the car returned to the garage area on a flatbed wrecker, a variety of crewmen and managers from a number of teams surrounded it, including Earnhardt Ganassi Racing competition director Steve Hmiel -- who stuck his head right under the mangled front end of the car -- which was missing its engine, which arrived via a separate wrecker -- and most of its front suspension.
"Heck yeah, in terms of dissipating energy, that's what it's supposed to do," Hmiel said. "If [the chassis] was stiffer it would have put all [the g-forces] back on Elliott.
"Elliott is probably pretty well shook up, but he walked out of the infield care center and that's a good sign. You could see he was in some pain when he got out of the race car but the idea is to tear stuff off [the car] and to avoid the sudden stop.
"It's unfortunate he hit on exactly the wrong spot on the race track, but the truth is that tearing stuff off is not all that bad. An Indy car wreck is a real scary thing to watch, and [Sadler's crash], to look up and all of a sudden see an engine and the front suspension sitting on the race track -- you're like 'Oh my God, what happened?'
"But the truth of the matter is that's the best thing that can happen, as long as [the pieces] don't intrude into the driver's compartment. The way this [new] car's built, it won't get back in there with [the driver]. So I think it did its job quite well. I know people are going to be shocked by what they see, but the truth of the matter is, that's what the car's supposed to do." (Continued)
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