Fans watch race action at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Likewise for all the drivers involved in a 19-car pileup just a few laps into Sunday’s main event. Several cars were destroyed but no driver was injured in the making of this filmed highlight.

The same held true for Edwards in his last-lap cannonball ride; in fact when he squirmed out of what was left of his race car he jogged the final 100 feet down the track to step across the finish line – an incredible display of quick wit and good humor moments after an incident that would have turned most of us to jelly.

Let’s face it: There’s a limit as to how “safe” it can ever be to strap a humanoid inside 3,400 pounds of screaming steel, high-octane fuel and grinding gears and send it rocketing around concrete walls at 200 mph in door-to-door traffic.

The same goes for the grandstands. There’s a limit to how much protective barrier can be constructed between the fans and the race they came to see. On one hand, the heavy wire mesh and steel cable catch-fence Sunday did its job by keeping Edwards’ car from taking a catastrophic tumble into the stands; on the other hand, it didn’t prevent all the debris from flying through and injuring some spectators.

I was in the press box during the ’87 race and my wife was sitting in the grandstands about 200 yards from where Allison’s Buick ripped out a section of the catch-fence. What would have happened if the car had made it over the wall and barrel-rolled into the packed stands is frightening to contemplate.

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After the crash of ’87 there was a howl of protest similar to the one we’ve been hearing after Sunday’s incident. I remember what Dale Earnhardt said in response to those concerns 22 years ago: “Build bigger fences.”

As for drivers who were worried about going Talladega-fast: “If they want to go slower, all they’ve gotta do is lift their foot off the gas,”

There’s no question that racing at Talladega is dangerous and scary. It always has been and, I suspect, it always will be. About all that NASCAR can do is what it’s done since Allison’s wild ride – keep emphasizing safer cars, more forgiving retaining walls and better catch-fences, while trying to hold a sane line on speeds.

But there’s a limit to how much technology can tame Talladega. It’ll never be a place for the timid and the faint of heart. That’s just the nature of the beast.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

Larry Woody is a veteran, award-winning sports journalist. Woody began working at the Nashville Tennessean in the 1960s and took over the auto racing beat full time in the early 1970s. www.RacinToday.com

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