Nearly Deadly At 'dega

From SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, May 4, 2009

THE WARNING WAS ISSUED BY CARL EDWARDS MOMENTS AFTER he emerged from the infield care center at Talladega on the afternoon of April 26. "We'll do this until somebody gets killed, and then [NASCAR] will change," Edwards said. The normally ebullient driver was visibly shaken, and for good reason: He had just walked away from a frightening accident that left seven spectators injured and just missed being one of the worst tragedies in NASCAR history.

This much appears all but certain: If NASCAR doesn't change how its races are conducted at the sport's most treacherous track, a driver or a fan—maybe dozens of fans—will get killed at the 2.66-mile tri-oval.

The race had already seen two massive wrecks involving a total of 24 cars before the Talladega time bomb nearly exploded on the last lap of the Aaron's 499. That's when Edwards, who was in the lead, dived low along the frontstretch to block a hard-charging Brad Keselowski. Unwilling to incur the kind of penalty that cost Regan Smith a win at Talladega in 2008, Keselowski held his ground rather than drive below the double-yellow out-of-bounds line that runs along the inside of the track. He bumped the left rear of Edwards's number 99 Ford. Edwards spun and was hit by Ryan Newman's car, which sent Edwards's 3,400-pound vehicle airborne at 190 mph.

He flew into the catch fence, but the impact sent parts of his car spraying like shrapnel into the first rows of the grandstands. Two fans had to be taken to hospitals in Birmingham, but, thankfully, the worst injury was a broken jaw. (Unaware of the events in the stands, Edwards was able to crawl out of his mutilated wreck and, with his helmet still on, jog 200 feet to cross the finish line à la Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights.)

This was racing theater at its most dramatic, but as even NASCAR officials admitted afterward, it was only by good fortune that there were no fatalities. "We'll investigate the accident and see what we can do better," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president of communications. "The good news is that the fence did what it was supposed to do."

Rather than rely on the strength of the fence, however, it is clearly time, in the wake of Edwards's wreck, for NASCAR to amend its rules and allow passing below the yellow line on the final lap at Talladega. "I'm not sure I did the right thing," said Keselowski, a 25-year-old full-time Nationwide Series driver making just his fifth Cup start. "But if the yellow line wasn't there, I would have gone underneath [Edwards]."

And had Keselowski gone underneath Edwards, there most likely would not have been a wreck. Next time there could be funerals following Talladega, which is why NASCAR needs to take action before the Cup series returns to its most perilous racetrack.