Talladega, Daytona raising height of catch fences to enhance safety at tracks
Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards bounces off the fence during the Aaron's 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in April at Talladega Superspeedway. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway are raising the height of their catch fences from 14 feet to 22 feet after analyzing their safety barriers following the accident that sent Carl Edwards flying into the Talladega fence in April.
Talladega will get the frontstretch portion of its fence completed before its Oct. 30-Nov. 1 race weekend and will do the backstretch during the offseason. Daytona, which has no more NASCAR races this year, will complete its new fence on both the frontstretch and backstretch by mid-January.
“It was pretty obvious that day that the fence that was there did its job,” said Talladega Superspeedway President Rick Humphrey of the Edwards incident. “We said we would have someone look at, evaluate and see if any recommendations or anything needed to be done to ... enhance what was in place.
“We did that. Our company hired an outside engineering firm, and they came back with some recommendations. And we’ve taken them up on those recommendations.”
Other enhancements have been made to the fences at other tracks owned by International Speedway Corp., the parent company of both Talladega and Daytona, but neither Humphrey nor DIS President Robin Braig would go into more details.
The Edwards accident occurred on the final lap of the Cup race when he was hit while attempting to block Phoenix Racing’s Brad Keselowski and then, while already slightly airborne from the contact with Keselowski, was nailed by Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Newman. Edwards’ Roush Fenway Racing car was kept out of the stands and ripped apart by the catch fence, which was made of a steel mesh and cables. Eight people were treated for injuries, according to track officials, and one woman suffered a face laceration and broken jaw after getting hit by debris off Edwards’ car or a piece of the fence.
Edwards was uninjured in the accident.
“I was watching from home, and [the crash] was breath-taking,” Braig said. “I was terrified when I saw it. After seeing [Geoff] Bodine’s Truck incident here [in 1999] … that’s what came to my mind: 'How did everything hold up, and did anyone get injured?'
“I was extremely concerned and glad to know that the system worked and everybody eventually was OK.”
ISC spokesman Lenny Santiago would not disclose how much money the new fencing cost. He said so far, only Daytona and Talladega fences are being changed. Daytona and Talladega share similar configurations and are the only two tracks where cars have restrictor plates put on the carburetor to restrict air flow and limit speeds. They decrease the chances of a car getting airborne but also result in the cars racing in tight packs two or three wide.
“Whenever we have an incident that impacts any of our systems, we take that opportunity to more closely scrutinize it and look at it across the company,” Santiago said. “Whatever we learn in these analyses, we’ll look and see where it can be applied to other tracks.
“The challenge is each track is different in terms of banking and speed, so our primary focus right now was on Talladega and Daytona.”
Humphrey and Braig said they did not believe the new fencing would significantly impact the sightlines of the drivers.
“The fabric, the mesh is the same size we had before, so their viewing will not be obstructed,” Braig said.
