Interesting point about the 5 point harness.
NASCAR has now relased info that Mr. Ernhardt's left lap belt was severed, most likely throwing him into the steering wheel, and causing his face (open face helmet) to hit it. That could also explain his broken ribs if his chest came in contact with the wheel.
They say he would have stood a much greater chance of living had the seatbelt not failed. Of course his helmet would have dispersed a good deal of the force had he been wearing a closed face unit.
Tough to say.
NASCAR has become less and less interesting to watch to me by continuing on this ridiculous trend of
- Using motors that are no longer made
- Refusing to update engine technology
- Running restictor plates
- and forcing engines to have equal performance
All those rules combine to cause the cars on the track to run close together the entire race increasing the number of three wide races and in turn causing a greater likelyhood of crashes.
Furthermore, they have blatantly allow drivers to ram each other and intentionally spin other drivers out to pick up positions. This type of dirty racing doesn't belong on the track. It's not supposed to be a crash up derby out there.
Finally, they have more and more cars in the races year after year. Which means more cars on the track than in years past, causing significant congestion on the track and increasing the number of accidents.
Why? Because it pays. A lot of people like to watch crashes. Studies and polls have shown that to be accurate. If they make it more aggressive and allow contact, more people watch. It's all about the big green.
If they want me to watch they are going to have to black flag the dirty drivers, allow new technology such as the 5.4 OHC motors and fuel injection, and find a new way to restrict the speed if they need to.
[This message has been edited by Unit 5302 (edited 02-23-2001).]