Photo Credit: Huffington Post

Article by: Daniel Farish

I have been a fan of auto racing for my entire life, almost 27 years. I have covered it as a member of the media for 2 years now, and yet this sport still surprises me. The racing for the first 299.75 miles of the NASCAR Nationwide race today was over the top exciting. These drivers were proving that they were the best in the world at what they do. A couple of observations from what happened:

First of all, anyone who would go out of their way to blame Brad Keselowski for this is out of their gourd. They need to crawl back under the rock they came from. This was, as Dale Jarrett put it, the “Perfect Storm.” It took number of things to go wrong at the exact wrong time for this to happen. As Regan Smith said, he blocked. You’re racing at Daytona for a win. It doesn’t matter if it’s Nationwide or ARCA. If he were in this position tomorrow, he’d do the same thing.

Kyle Petty said it right. It’s a shame that it takes a tragedy to get things moved along faster. Once this weekend is over, NASCAR will go back and look at, “Why did the wheels come off? What happened to the front clip? Why did the engine come out? What about the catch fence, why did it not support the force of the wreck?” NASCAR will get this right.

I have been at a racetrack when something like this happened. In 2011 at Sportsdrome Speedway, the car of Brian Mantooth was forced up on the guardrail going down the backstretch, turned up 90 degrees and flew in front of a pit entrance, slamming into a railroad tie that was used to hold part of the fence up. The car struck some track officials and onlookers who were standing too close to the track. His car actually landed on one guy. Everyone involved recovered and a severe tragedy was avoided. Since then the Sportsdrome has mandated a restricted area where no one can stand. Daytona is a 2.5 mile superspeedway. The Sportsdrome is a ¼ mile short track. It can happen anywhere.

As of 7:30pm Saturday night, everyone involved in the wreck is in stable condition. Seven people were admitted to Halifax Medical with trauma injuries. Two are critical, one a minor and the other an adult with head injuries. But again, ALL are stable.

NASCAR will go on. They will race tomorrow. No doubt this will be in the back of the driver’s heads. But they know what risk they assume when they get in the car. On the forefront of their minds will be a Daytona 500 victory. The driver in the aforementioned wreck at the Sportsdrome has not come back to racing. There is a feeling of guilt that comes along with this. While rationally we can sit back and KNOW that there is no way to blame the driver, sometimes you can’t get that through to the driver. Kyle Larson, the driver whose car disintegrated in the catch fence, seems OK. It is Regan Smith, the driver who made the initial blocking move that led to the wreck, he is the one who seems to be battling. Thoughts and prayers go out to the fans, their families, and the drivers.