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'A hard look' Drivers react favorably to Earnhardt crash report
ATLANTA (CNNSI.com) -- NASCAR officials announced the results -- and their recommendations -- in a news conference Tuesday concerning the investigation into the Feb. 18 crash that killed seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt. Winston Cup drivers were apprized of the results Tuesday morning at a North Carolina country club and at least three drivers had high remarks for NASCAR's findings. "I think all any of the drivers have asked is for NASCAR to take a hard look at what happened and see what it would take to keep it from happening again," said Jeremy Mayfield, driver of the No. 12 Ford. "From my standpoint, they started doing that right away. The report [Tuesday] is just the culmination of all of that work. "You hear all the time about what the FAA does after a plane goes down somewhere. The objective is to not just find out what happened, but to come up with ways to keep that same thing from happening again. NASCAR has done that. They've used experts in physics and medicine to determine what happened and how to stop it from happening again. They have spent a lot of time and effort to scientifically make those determinations." Kyle Petty, father of NASCAR driver Adam Petty, who was killed in an on-track crash last year at Loudon, N.H., said, "Even though the results were announced [Tuesday], the drivers and teams have been seeing a lot of these results all season long. There have been plenty of times that someone from NASCAR would come through the garage asking and checking different things in the driver's compartment, making suggestions and offering some new ideas. "I guess the public heard some new things, and maybe we heard a few new things too," said Petty, who drives the No. 45 Dodge. "But by and large, a lot of things NASCAR has learned since February have already been implemented. They didn't make a big deal out of it, and neither did the teams." Elton Sawyer, driver of the No. 98 Ford on the Busch series, said, "I don't know there was anything particularly surprising in the results of the investigation. "One of the good things that came out of it, though, was we now have a lot more data and a lot more ideas that can be distributed to the race teams. There are new ways, as a result of this, we can avoid a lot of the problems that arose in this one situation. "I commend NASCAR in that they don't react just to react," Sawyer said. "They are trying to do the right thing and to make things better for all of us. The bottom line is we are all trying to make sure we know what the right things are. They have brought in experts from outside of racing to help with this investigation. We all have some work to do, NASCAR and the teams, and I think it's great we're all working together to make things better."
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
