Carl Edwards gets airborne and into the fence at Talladega on the last lap of the Aaron’s 499. (PHOTO: LAT Photographic)
In the wake of Carl Edwards’s terrifying last-lap crash at Talladega on Sunday, drivers are pushing for ways to increase safety and lessen risk at the 2.66-mile superspeedway and home to many of NASCAR’s most dramatic crashes.
In Sunday’s Aaron’s 499, Edwards’ Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion made contact with race-winner Brad Keselowski as the two drove to the checkered flag Sunday. The No. 99 Ford went airborne, bouncing off the hood of Ryan Newman’s Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet before sailing into the catchfence, where debris from the violent impact injured seven fans.
On Thursday, Edwards and team owner Jack Roush flew to Daytona Beach, Fla., to meet with NASCAR personnel about how to avoid such incidents in the future.
“It was really a good talk, and I think that we’re all on the same page and that we want to do whatever we can to make these races as safe as they can be for everybody – the fans and the drivers and all that,” said Edwards. “We’ve come a long ways in the last however many years, but there’s still stuff that can be done. All we did was talk about things that really needed to be done and they’re working on ideas of things to be done, so I’m real excited about seeing what they come up with and, hopefully, it’s stuff that keeps wrecks like that from happening.”
Newman, who has an engineering degree, said he was upset at seeing two cars get airborne at Talladega, with Matt Kenseth’s NASCAR Nationwide car going upside down a day before the Edwards crash. “We saw two cars that got upside down, all by themselves basically,” said Newman. “They got spun around, but they still got airborne by themselves. So, there is work that needs to be done. I’m not satisfied with it coming back down. It should never get airborne in the first place.”
