Michael Mc Dowell

Michael McDowell Texas Qualifying Run Crash

Michael McDowell who has taken over the #00 car for David Reutimann got into a horrible wreck during his qualifying lap at Texas going into Turn 1. If you haven’t seen this yet, check out the video. Its pretty amazing to see someone walk away from a crash like that with no scratches! It’s proof that NASCAR has come pretty far with safety, especially with the Car of Tomorrow.

Did You See That???

I just saw the photos of the Michael Mc Dowell crash today. That was unbelievable! Today we saw a classic defense for the car formerly known as the “Car of Tomorrow.” The funny part is, I was originally going to post about the changes that have happened under the watch of Brian France, and offer my defense for those choices, regardless of whether I agreed with them or not. The new car and what its done for NASCAR is now the centerpiece of my defense.

Many fans have complained they hated the car. Heck, even Kyle Busch, the first CoT race winner said it stunk. “It’s too boxy.” “It’s ugly.” “It’s changing racing, and not for the better.” These are just a handful of complaints I’ve heard. We saw today one of the major reasons why the car was developed- for safety. Watching how Mc Dowell hit that wall at Texas Motor Speedway was eerily similar to the way someone else once hit a wall at 180+ m.p.h.- the crash that took the life of Dale Earnhardt. It’s not the same I know, but if you’ve ever been in a collision, all you have to do is increase what happened to you at the speed of that crash and multiply by a factor of at least two, and you get the idea of what happens when you hit an immovable object at that speed. That could have killed him.

I know many of you think that NASCAR is run by incompetent corporate shills. You’re entitled to your opinion. It’s not hard to see how the game has changed and it is the nature of people to hate change. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: all sports have changed if you look over the last 30 years. I’m not suggesting that all changes have been good. I HATE the Top 35 rule! But on the whole NASCAR’s governing body has worked to make the sport better, and generally speaking, I think they have. To their credit, NASCAR has been good about changing up their approach where they’ve seen mistakes made. You gotta give them credit for that.

One of those good changes is the Car of Tomorrow.

Thank God we’re not mourning a driver today.