Y'know how when someone passes you always hear what a great person they were? And they sound so wonderful you almost can't believe it? Dan really was that way.

Like at lunch at the track. He'd go get his lunch at the counter (just like everyone else) and then he'd go find the biggest group of kids he could to sit and have lunch with. He'd talk to them, ask them how their race that day went, etc. I think it made his day to know that he made theirs. I know hundreds of kids over the years went back to school on Monday and got to tell their friends that they had lunch with the Indy 500 winner.

I have been thinking about all of this since it happened. I am just so sorry that they didn't have the safer chassis that Dan had been testing when this happened. The only thing I can hope is that his efforts with the new car testing before his death will save a lot of lives.

that and don't forget this... go to 2:38 ... could have easily been 2 drivers VERY seriously hurt or worse.

Nascar Sprint Cup 2011 at Watkins Glen, GWC & Big crash - YouTube

Yep, that was a wild wreck! There have been a number of impacts over the last 5-6 years or so in NASCAR that could have been fatal or resulted in serious injury had it not been for safety innovations.

The SAFER barriers are incredible. I've read that they can absorb anywhere from 30-50% of the impact vs. hitting the old bare concrete walls.

If you're interested in safety, there's a good book called 'Rapid Response' by Steve Olvey (former director of the CART safety team).

And the SAFER barrier is interesting. It was developed at IMS, and Tony George could have made a fortune by licensing it or selling the components. But, he paid for all of the development and testing and then let anyone who wanted to to copy and use it without any payment or royalties.

a lot to be said for that... even if the guy is rich already since a lot of the rich are the most greedy it seems.

Yeah, a shame that not all of the barriers at WG are SAFER... they really need to take a look at that track. I've never seen such an impact I don't really. Maybe Jimmy Johnson's crash there when he was in the Nationwide series.... just a dead stop.

I recall watching a show years and years ago about the black box Indy Cars use... this was of course during the time that Emerson Fitapaldi, Mears, Unser Jr., etc were all still racing. Emerson got together with someone and the data car back at 100+ G's on impact. Scientists never thought a man could live much past 50. I swear it just seems that those cars then were safer than they are now. They aren't faster that they were before either, so that's not it. I guess it's all of these 1.5 mile ovals where guys are out of control much more than before.

The good thing is those walls were not concrete, so if you watch closely you can see the guardrails give and absorb energy during the impact.

But I do think they are going to make some changes to the track there and probably move the walls out away from the track. They have some really odd angles there.

RIP Dan