CUP: Watkins Glen To Install SAFER Barrier In High-Risk Areas

Sprint Cup

CUP: Watkins Glen To Install SAFER Barrier In High-Risk Areas

A scary crash in 2010 prompts Watkins Glen International to add safety equipment...

SceneDaily.com | Posted January 18, 2010 Concord, NC

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Sam Hornish Jr.'s car is brought back to the garage at Watkins Glen International after he, Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton were involved in a crash in 2009. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Watkins Glen International will add SAFER barriers to two areas of its road course as well as possibly Turn 5, where Sam Hornish Jr., Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton were involved in a scary crash last year.

The Turn 5 area had only a small patch of grass separating the racing surface from a tire barrier. Twice last year, stock cars bounced off the tires into the path of oncoming traffic.

The grass will be paved and a SAFER barrier or another barrier will be installed to replace the tire barrier, track president Michael Printup said Sunday. Because the 18 feet of tires will no longer be necessary, there will be about 12 feet of extra racing surface.

A wall will have to be erected if a SAFER barrier is used in that area, Printup said.

Printup said track officials considered reconfiguring the turn, but decided to leave it the same but pave the grass and install the barrier.

The area is only used by NASCAR.

Among other changes at The Glen:

• In the backstretch chicane, or “bus stop,” the gravel will be paved and a SAFER barrier will be installed along the interior concrete wall.

• In Turn 10, a rumble strip will be added along the edge of the pavement and the gravel trap will be removed for more pavement.

• In Turn 11, heading toward the start-finish line, a SAFER barrier will run from the corner of the turn beyond the pedestrian bridge. The tire barriers also will be removed. NASCAR officials asked The Glen to do something to that area of the track.

“We told [NASCAR officials] what we were thinking, they made some suggestions and the SAFER barrier in Turn 11 was the only place they asked for it,” Printup said. “They said if we were going to put in some SAFER barrier, they would like 11 because it is a pretty hard hit.”

The improvements likely will cost about a $1 million and should be done by July, Printup said.

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