New safety measures need to reach all levels of racing

By Jim Huber, Turner Sports Interactive
February 5, 2002
1:05 PM EST (1305 GMT)

There’s been another death in the family. Chances are, you missed it. Twenty-nine year old Texan named Ronald Laney died of a broken neck at Tampa’s East Bay Raceway last week.

Wasn’t wearing a head restraint. Didn’t have to.

The first racing fatality of 2002.

Jim Huber

All of our focus will be on Daytona for the next two weeks as the big boys return and, with them, significant safety changes. Head restraints will now be required. We all will nod in approval. Finally. At last. About time.

But where is the help for the Ronald Laneys of this world?

The sweeping changes affect only an estimated two percent of drivers competing in this country. Of the 269 people who died in American racing since 1990, only twenty percent came at the major raceways. The others died on short tracks, most of which are not affected by any single regulatory commission.

Even the 90 short tracks sanctioned by NASCAR don’t have to abide by NASCAR’s new safety rules.

Consider the numbers: of the 9,000 drivers licensed by NASCAR, 8,000 race at short tracks. In other words, eight out of every nine drivers aren’t required to use head restraints while competing. How silly. How foolish. How deadly.

The question now is whether all of these new and improved safety changes are mere window dressing, put in place where the majority of the spotlight shines. Look at us, how much we care.

When, in reality, it has only touched the tip of the iceberg.

While we all turn to the enormity of Daytona, let us never forget the East Bay Raceways of this world. And when we stop to remember Dale Earnhardt, we must also pause for Ronald Laney.

NOTE: Jim Huber's column appears every Tuesday on NASCAR.com and the opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.