Originally Posted by ZCanadian

Yeah, what a race, what a crash.
One can argue the barriers all day long, but it seems that they did exactly what they were meant to do. They absorbed an immense impact without killing the driver. The car didn't careen into the infield, nor did it bounce back into traffic.
I doubt that anyone would have expected a perpendicular crash along a straight.

Thank God that he didn't lose consciousness. Nobody could have reached around in that fire to find the driver (they couldn't even tell if the safety cell was right side up!), un-harness, remove the steering wheel and headrest, and lift an unconscious driver out of the wreck.