After a thorough review of a Talladega wreck involving Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece, NASCAR has mandated new safety measures for the Next Gen Cup Series car, effective for the July 9 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The most significant changes involve the addition of a steel plate welded to the right-side door bars to help prevent intrusion by another vehicle and a general “softening” of the front end of the car through modifications to the front bumper strut and front ballast.
The latter changes are designed to help dissipate energy during a wreck and lessen the impact on the driver and, again, to decrease the likelihood that the nose will intrude into another car.
During the Talladega race on April 23, Larson was running near the front of the field when he spun after inadvertent contact, slid across the apron onto the infield grass and shot back up the track across traffic, collecting Preece.
The impact of the nose of Preece’s No. 41 Ford tore part of the body work from the right-side door of Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet and bent the door bars. Fortunately, both Larson and Preece were unhurt during the crash.
Asked on Saturday at Sonoma Raceway what he thought of the safety enhancements, Larson replied: “Yeah, I mean not an engineer, so I don’t know. I can’t look at it and really give you an opinion on how well they did with the changes or whatnot.
“But I am very happy that me being in that wreck at Talladega—and seeing how close it got to being really bad—seeing them go straight into action, compile data and make quick moves on improving the safety was something I was happy to see.”
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