ARCA’s WIll Kimmel OK after scary and bizarre crash that ends in parking lot
Mobile (Ala.) Speedway has no outside retaining walls in the corners. You will immediately see why this is an important fact.
The ARCA Racing Series – the fourth-biggest national stock car series – was racing at Mobile on Saturday and the throttle apparently stuck on Will Kimmel’s car as he motored into turn one.
Since there was no wall on the outside, there was nothing to prevent Kimmel’s car from flying off the track.
Kimmel’s car flipped multiple times after he exited the track and barged through a retaining wall set up to separate the parking lot from track property.
According to his Facebook page, Kimmel was “doing good” after the crash and later posted a picture of him chatting in the garage area. Here’s what his car looked like after the accident.
He also apparently didn’t hit multiple vehicles in the parking lot, just the trailer hitch of a truck.
Yes, it’s not unheard of for smaller racetracks to not have a retaining wall in the corners like Mobile’s setup. And while Kimmel could have been seriously injured in a high-speed impact with a concrete wall (At $500 a foot, SAFER barriers are too expensive for many small speedways to install), the presence of a wall around the entire track should be mandatory for any and all national racing series. The ARCA series and Kimmel are both very fortunate that the crash wasn’t worse than it was.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
