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On-track clues Experts examine six Winston Cup crashes for velocity
Updated: Thursday October 18, 2001 5:47 PM
By Mike Fish, CNNSI.com Kelly Kennett eyes a panel of small TV monitors, analyzing frame-by-frame footage of the crash that killed racing legend Dale Earnhardt. The biomechanical engineer is like a football coach, frantically punching the rewind button every few seconds. Slowing the action. Freezing frames. Suddenly, it catches his attention. Something only visible when the tape is eased to nearly a halt. Just before contacting the concrete wall, the front wheels of the No. 3 car begin to turn left, as if Earnhardt is trying to steer away from impending danger. If true, it challenges the assertions of NASCAR experts Drs. James Benedict and James Raddin. They contend that Earnhardt was badly displaced after the No. 36 car struck the right side of his car and a flicker before Earnhardt's car contacted the wall during the last lap of the Daytona 500. Earnhardt being out of place in the driver compartment is how Drs. Benedict and Raddin explain their belief that he was so out of position as to sustain a fatal blow to the back of his head through contact with the steering wheel. "Look, he appears to be piloting," Kennett said. "The wheel is turning left just before he hits the wall. Yet, Raddin and Benedict maintain he's so displaced over to the right. "Watching it frame-by-frame, as he's hit by the 36 car he rotates right, but you can see his left front wheel start to turn. It looks to me like he tries to steer. If the impact is so severe as to displace you to the right, then the chance to steer to the left is relatively small. That tells me he may be more in position than you think by the time he hits the wall. If he's more in position that lends credibility to [court-appointed independent expert] Barry Myers' scenario of his catching the steering wheel under the chin." Clearly, the collision with the Ken Schrader's No. 36 car redirected Earnhardt up the steeply banked track, assuring his car of a more direct hit into the concrete barrier. "Earnhardt's car makes an angle change of 25 degrees or more after hitting the 36 car," Kennett said. "I think he was originally headed for a side-swipish problem into the wall. Then, he rotates with the 36 and gets a more severe hit. That collision is altering his trajectory, and it is very important."
Kennett and John Meyer, a mechanical engineer and accident reconstructionist, analyzed video footages for CNNSI.com of Earnhardt's fatal crash, along with five other serious right frontal crashes this Winston Cup season. Both experts are employed by Exponent Failure Analysis Associates, an international firm that specializes in accident and failure investigations. Biodynamic Research Corporation, a firm that does similar work, was retained by NASCAR. Interestingly, Kennett and Meyer found that Earnhardt's Daytona 500 crash may not have been the worst of the Winston Cup season -- even though it was the lone fatality. Mike Skinner, Earnhardt's former teammate at Richard Childress Racing, appears to have had a crash of the same or even greater magnitude five months later in Chicago. Buckshot Jones wasn't too far off, either. Jeff Gordon, Michael Waltrip and Ward Burton survived significant, though less serious crashes than the other three drivers. "One thing I have noticed that separated Earnhardt and maybe Skinner from the rest of crashes is where the vehicle starts to really accelerate or travel toward the wall," Meyer said. "Most are in the middle of the track. Ward Burton gets sideways and it's not until he's close to the top of the track that he faces the barrier and is going into the wall." Where on the track you turn up into the wall can be critical. "The further away or down you start into the wall, the more chance you have to build up speed," Kennett said. "Skinner is the exception because he seems to literally drive into wall." Already struggling to remain competitive on the circuit, Skinner had a right front tire go down racing into turn three for the inaugural Winston Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway. The right corner of his car smacked the wall hard, slid along the wall before the right front hit a second time. Skinner sat out a month with a concussion and knee and ankle injuries before recently ending his season to have knee surgery. In all of the crashes studied for CNNSI.com, the drivers wore some form of a head and neck restraint device, except Earnhardt, who sustained a basilar skull fracture. So do the experts rate his the worst crash? "I'm not sure I would put Earnhardt at the top," Meyer said. "If you did the work here, you might find Mike Skinner is worse. It would be close. Of the ones we've seen, Michael Waltrip is the least severe. You have Jeff Gordon. Buckshot Jones probably isn't severe as Skinner, but pretty close. Ward Burton is probably in between Waltrip and Buckshot Jones. "You see that both Buckshot Jones and Skinner drive straight in without a whole lot of lateral sliding velocity. In the case of Earnhardt, the car had decelerated, because it's skidding sideways down the track. It wasn't traveling as fast. I think 155 to 160 mph or so. "Skinner was probably going faster, with a higher initial vehicle speed. And it looks like the angle he hits the barrier might be very similar to Earnhardt. Maybe a little more shallow. But it certainly looks like a substantial component of his velocity is going right into that barrier."
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