DOVER, Del. (AP) – Tony Stewart could not avoid the oil spill on the concrete track that spun his Chevrolet and slammed the car into an unprotected wall on the front stretch.
“That hurt,” he told his team over the radio.
Spins happen, it’s part of racing.
But the fact his car struck an exposed wall just days after Dover International Speedway touted its addition of energy-absorbing soft walls – SAFER barriers – made NASCAR drivers ask why each part of the unforgiving walls were not covered.
“There’s really no excuse not to have it,” pole winner Kevin Harvick said. “We don’t wear our helmets and HANS devices for the impacts that we are prepared for. We wear those things for the instances where those one-off things can happen like what happened today.”