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Dumb NASCAR driver....

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I stand by my original statement that this was the worst crash in Nascar.

Sr's 'crash' was not worse than this, but the 'outcome' obviously was. When I say 'worst crash' I mean the most destruction, the most G's, the most overall carnage. After Bodines crash you couldn't even tell it was once a racecar. Sr's car just had a smashed front corner. Plus if 'death' = the worst crash, there were many just as bad as Sr's crash. Adam Petty? Kenny Irwin? JD McDuffie? Tony Roper? Blaize Alexander?

Richard Pettys crash? Hella bad too. However, you never saw the driver hanging out. Look at Bodine. There's nothing left around him. The rollcage is gone. Dude is in open air going about 100mph at this point. I'd put Richards crash in 2nd place.

Next would be Dale Sr's crash at Talladega was it? Where he kinda did the same thing Bodine did but the car/cage stayed intact as he never hit a blunt object head on like Bodine did.

Richard Petty never hit a blunt object either, which is why I still say Bodines crash was worse.

OH..an interesting tidbit..Geoff Bodine was the guy that brought full-face helmets into Nascar. Ironically, look at how it saved his life. Earnhardt wouldn't wear one.
 
You are right about the crashes that you mentioned being worse than Dale's. I do not believe any other crash affected as many people as Dale's (maybe Senna's). I remember watching and saying He can't be dead, not from the pissy crash!

You forgot about Bobby Allison's 'Daga crash.
 
I stand by my original statement that this was the worst crash in Nascar.

Sr's 'crash' was not worse than this, but the 'outcome' obviously was. When I say 'worst crash' I mean the most destruction, the most G's, the most overall carnage. After Bodines crash you couldn't even tell it was once a racecar. Sr's car just had a smashed front corner. Plus if 'death' = the worst crash, there were many just as bad as Sr's crash. Adam Petty? Kenny Irwin? JD McDuffie? Tony Roper? Blaize Alexander?

Richard Pettys crash? Hella bad too. However, you never saw the driver hanging out. Look at Bodine. There's nothing left around him. The rollcage is gone. Dude is in open air going about 100mph at this point. I'd put Richards crash in 2nd place.

Next would be Dale Sr's crash at Talladega was it? Where he kinda did the same thing Bodine did but the car/cage stayed intact as he never hit a blunt object head on like Bodine did.

Richard Petty never hit a blunt object either, which is why I still say Bodines crash was worse.

OH..an interesting tidbit..Geoff Bodine was the guy that brought full-face helmets into Nascar. Ironically, look at how it saved his life. Earnhardt wouldn't wear one.
I don't know my NASCAR history that well, but Sr's death is what actually pushed the head restraints into place (so far as even becoming a rule). Before that it was voluntary and only two drivers IIRC had them. Sr came from the old school way of racing and after so many years, never had an issue, why change it? I can see his POV on it.
 
I don't know my NASCAR history that well, but Sr's death is what actually pushed the head restraints into place (so far as even becoming a rule). Before that it was voluntary and only two drivers IIRC had them. Sr came from the old school way of racing and after so many years, never had an issue, why change it? I can see his POV on it.

There is no telling how many lives have been saved because of the safety NASCAR have put into the cars after his death. Carl Edwards for one probably owes his life to Dale's death.
 
Definitely among the most spectacular appearing. Some of the other terrible ones I can think of are Harmon and Mike Waltrip (both bristol), and Steve Grissom had a bad one as well. That's not engineering that saves a driver at THAT point of destruction, it's luck. There's nothing left, poles cut the car in several pieces.

G forces kill though. Jeff Gordon has taken some hits (pocono comes to mind) that SHOULD have killed him.
 
Didn't they say that Elliott Sadler's crash at Pocono this year was the highest recorded G forces they've ever had? He can definitely thank his head restraint.

Nascar did great with the safety, but they were just years too late. Indy Car mandated head restraints and seat belt rules years before Nascar. Steve Olvey even tried to take his ideas to Nascar (get his book....Rapid Response....great read!!) and they scoffed at him. As a result, all those drivers died because of poor safety equipment.