Tough way to remove an engine

Did not watch the race at Daytona, but saw this photo of Austin Dillon's car disintegrating during a horrific crash at the finish. Several fans may have been injured even worse than he was (which was minor).

Unbelievable how those drivers survive! Would think the G forces alone would be too much!

Was really something, I stayed awake to watch the race last nite but am paying for it today. Tho with 4.25" of rain last nite! not much to do today
anyhow but a little recovery.

Anyhow, man when he only had 3/4 of a car left sitting upside down engine and tranny sitting out on the grass, and he got hit again by another
car spinning him so e more upside down, that looked pretty bad deal.

Glad everyone, fans too, are pretty much all ok from what we hear. Amazing to see him get out and wave to the crowd.

Look for video on the net, that was a big one, he got lifted into the air and flipped across the track over 2 lanes of race cars and stuck into the
catch fence, drive train ripped out and he was spinning like a top on his roof... was just amazing to see and that everyone survived.

Paul

Tough perhaps, but surely quick!

Saw Geoff Bodine do about the same thing in a truck same spot years ago . Engine and trans out, pretty much him sitting in rollcage .

Ryan Briscoe in his rookie year driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. Danica Patrick was sitting on the poll throughout most of the qualifying, and some real experienced drivers couldn't unseat her. Then near the end of the qualifying, Briscoe, a rookie qualified almost a full second faster than her and everyone looked at each other and said "something's up". About a half hour later all of Ganassi's cars got called to Tech, and not long after that it was announced that all of Ganassi's cars were penalized and sent to the back of the field for the next day's race. This is what happened to Ryan Briscoe early in that race. Everyone walked away unhurt, thankfully. The race was stopped for about an hour to repair the fencing that was shredded. The fix for that race and a couple of more was wiring a piece of temp chain link fence over the hole that his car made. His engine rolled down onto the lower apron. His car was destroyed, shredded...but he and everyone walked away unhurt, thankfully. After the race I and some fellas from the track (George, Allan, and Rick) walked up the embankment to inspect the new, well dented safer barrier, and parts of his car were between it and the original concrete wall, so I climbed between them and was picking up pieces of shredded Kevlar and whatever other composites they are made of and was handing them through the chain link fence to fans that wandered up to the outside barrier and were begging for them. Briscoe won the championship for Ganassi the following year, I think it was, and it happened at Chicagoland Speedway where this crash took place.

Mark

Ryan Briscoe at Chicagoland Speedway 2005

Strange too that Dale Earnhart Sr. got killed in what looked like a minor crash (in comparison).

Daytona is a scrap track. Almost every race has a big wreck. Just a few years back didn't the engine and a few wheels actually get past the catch fence into the stands at Daytona?

What amazes me is those cars hit a solid wall at 200mph, no air bags, driver cage frame is left intact, driver walks away. Modern civilian car hit a tree at 25mph the rear end almost passes the front, driver is basically trapped in a crumpled can. Might be able to walk away, if the air bag don't hurt them bad first. Why don't manufacturers take the hint, sturdy frame beats tech for safety in a crash any day.

You also huh? As soon as he walked to the ambulance I hit the off button and went to bed. Gone are the days I can stay up to 3 in the morning and roll out without much of an affect. Being a sticky 85º isn't helping much either. sure took Jr's TV thunder away again for the night.

Lemans disaster about 1955!!!

I have always thought that Dale had a heart attack or some other problem.Because his wreck was not that bad.

Smokey Yunick wrote that while he was working on the GM Buick turbo V-6 in Detroit,
he used their mainframe computer after hours to analyze race cars and tracks. IIRC a
safe race car would have to be 50+ feet long to run the speeds they do inside of the
safety walls and fences. He then redesigned race tracks putting spectator
grandstands on the inside of the track and lots of space on the outside for out of
control cars to escape to without killing a driver. Too bad someone didn't actually
try this, it seems like it might be a lot safer for both spectators and for drivers.

A buddy runs the NASCAR track here in NH. They interviewed him today for tonight's news. He showed the cable restraint system that they use to be able to keep large parts out of the stands. He says that it is a constant process of upgrading, learning something new, and upgrading again.

Smokey was a good guy.

But I see the fellas and last year especially the gal hit the inside wall harder than they were hitting the outside wall...

Everything worked here, driver got a few bruises, a few fans got what are called minor injuries.

Certainly could have been a lot worse.

Restrictor plate means all the cars can bunch up into a pack easily, never have to lift the gas so everyone is going full bore all out and does not at all want to slow for anything. With a narrow track no place to go when something happens. Then a pack of 2-3 cars are faster than one car, so the rear is coming up on those in front, and the one in front has to block or get sent to the rear. But blocking leads to wrecks....

So obviously throw out the restrictor plate and then they have to drive and brake and so forth right? But then on these couple tracks they end up going 220+ mph and that is about 15mph faster than the car is safe for, that extra inertia seems small but is actually huge, would be less accidents, but they would be killers.

Oh and at some point is still has to be a race, and use the same cars the other tracks use.... So you can't get way out with low,power engines or the like..... It still needs to be a race.

So, it is what it is. They have done a bunch with safer barriers, cockpit design, head restraint, for the drivers. For the fans they moved seats back some, extra chain link fence for low stuff, and so on. I'm sure they will do more.

If we wanted to be safe we would just stay home and watch it on TV..... More dangerous to get out on the highway with all the impatient people with cell phones glued to their ear anyhow.....

Paul

Impact trauma is unpredictable. I have seen guys without a scratch killed that way. Richie Evans had very few visible injuries. I raced for a few years, as a car builder and crew chief, and we won a few, but I'm prouder of the fact tha nobody was ever hurt or killed in anything I built.

If anyone wants to see that wreck go to nascar.com and watch the video.Kid crawled out of what was left of the car,with a little help from Jr's crew, with nothing more than a bruised tail bone and arm.When Geoff Bodine had his wreck he was very badly injured.
With Dale Sr,it seems to me it was determined he suffered a broken neck.

Restricter plate racing is dicey on the best of days at either of the plate tracks.To make matters worse at the 400,after a restart for some reason some of the caution lights that ring the track remained on when they should have switched to green.The drivers saw them yellow and slowed as they are supposed to do.Nascar said it was a mistake but now everyone is lined up single file and has to run and race like the devil to get back what they lost.Seems to me yellow should have stayed on for a lap or two and the drivers put back to their last position at the time of the yellow.

In Dale's wreck his head whipped forward and broke his neck - weight of the helmet helped make that happen. Several people at the track were fully expecting Dale to get out the car swinging at the driver that he was wrapped up with.

(quoted from post at 08:52:25 07/07/15) In Dale's wreck his head whipped forward and broke his neck - weight of the helmet helped make that happen. Several people at the track were fully expecting Dale to get out the car swinging at the driver that he was wrapped up with.

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Not Kenny Schrader, He was the first one there, and knew it wasn't good.

You've obviously never removed an engine. That's the EASY way.