Elliott and Patrick wrecks reaffirm requests for less grass at tracks
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – One of the dominant topics of Tuesday’s pre-Daytona 500 media day was safety. And one of those safety-related topics concerned the presence of grass on the inside of NASCAR tracks.
“It looks pretty but the grass is one thing that tears many race cars apart,” AJ Allmendinger said Tuesday.
During Sunday’s 500, those concerns were on full display as both Chase Elliott and Danica Patrick had ruined cars simply because their cars went sliding into the grass.
Elliott went first. His car got loose off turn 4 on lap 20 and he went sliding into the infield. He kept the car off the wall, but the front splitter of his car dug into the turf. When it lodged into the grass, the entire front of the car ended up ruined.
So instead of driving away and still having a chance for a comeback, Elliott spent 40 laps behind the wall as his team made repairs to the car.
Patrick went sliding into the backstretch grass on lap 185 when she blocked Greg Biffle. Her ride was wild as all four wheels on her car spent time in the air as the car bounced along. And, much like Elliott’s car, the front was ruined once the splitter dug into the grass.
Patrick ended up 35th while Elliott finished 37th.
“I just think when you look at how many cars were taken out of the race, we would have a much better race if the grass wasn’t there,” Jimmie Johnson said Tuesday.
The grass isn’t the only variable at play when it comes to damage from these types of slides, however. We pointed it out Tuesday when drivers first voiced their concerns and we’ll say it again. The splitter deserves a lot of blame too.
The splitter is a lip that juts out on the bottom of the front bumper of the Sprint Cup cars. It’s great for downforce, but it becomes a shovel when it’s off the pavement because there’s so little clearance between the front bumpers and the ground. If Cup cars had more space between the front ends and the pavement, the grass wouldn’t be as much of an issue.
Which will change first? We’re not sure, though our guess will be that more paved areas at tracks happen before the cars undergo a significant body change. But no matter what change happens, we can guarantee that we’ll continue to see accidents like we saw on Sunday.
“My opinion, grass belongs on golf courses,” Johnson said. “We need asphalt around here to slow the cars down, control the cars.”
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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!
