I love NASCAR it is my release after a long weeks work I don't typically like to complain or bad mouth the sport I love. In this case I tried to give NASCAR the benefit of the doubt on this car when drivers started complaining these were harder hits they were taking on hits that looked minor. I knew that a new design nothing was going to be perfect until it got on the track. I accepted Kurt Busch's concussion with minimal push back despite the fact Kurt was the first driver to truly pull me into NASCAR and the first driver I personally met. However this how now gotten way out of hand.
I watched crashes in the Gen 6 car that didn't appear like drivers should survive in Austin Dillon and Ryan Newman's crashes at Daytona and yet those drivers walked away that night or days later seeming virtually unharmed. I admit until those crashes I took saftey largely for granted however after seeing those crashes having two of my favorite drivers Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch suffer serious injuries in crashes. Saftey has been brought to my forefront and yet NASCAR to the public eye seems more lacksidasical then ever berfore. Alex Bowman's hit at Talladega looked like barely anything more than a tap and yet Alex now has a concussion and called it the hardest hit he has ever taken in a race this coming from a man who flipped a midget so bad he almost died. You know have 2 of the stars of your sport missing races due to a concussion and possibly both loosing their chance to race for a championship. In my eyes as a fan this is absolutely unaccaptable.
I am sure NASCAR probabaly has plans to make improvements to the new car over the off season I would be abslutely shocked if they didn't. However that doesn't change the here and now we are headed to a track that usually collects most of the field in some type of wreck. I genuinely fear for the drivers saftey this weekend head injuries are nothing to mess with and the type of wrecks that have caused the concussions seem minor looking at them. However i think that hints at the biggest issue with this car it is simply not crumpling in wrecks. I don't like to see drivers taken out but if Alex Bowman's car would have crumpled last week he might have missed that race rather then driving around we now know concussioned and missing who knows how many races. I don't know how we can say we can truly wait til the off season to fix the issues on this car how many drivers are gonna be hurt in the last 6 races of this season. I am worried that it might be worse then a concussion to a driver this week at Talladega. Yes racing is dangerous and always risky but now it seems risker then ever and more dangerous to drivers and their long term health.
I pray everyone makes it safely through this weekened at Talladega and the next 5 weeks. I usually don't want the NASCAR season to end when it does but at this point for driver saftey I am ready for it and for the off season so NASCAR can hopefully make improvements to the cars so they can still put on good racing but become more crushable to hopefully the car takes more of the impact off the drivers. It is clear something needs to change and I hope as much as I love watching the racing that if the drivers aren't comftorable they come together as a unit to fight for change and even boycott if necessary to get the changes needed to these cars the drivers know what they are feeling I don't care what NASCAR says about not seeing the impacts as worse they clearly are and something has to change before someone gets seriously injured or killed.
