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HEMBREE: Talladega Dangers Inevitable
Bloodthirsty? It’s Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s word for Sunday’s racing…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted October 08, 2012   Charlotte, NC
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) gives teammate Jimmie Johnson a ride on his car after an incident in the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
Some day, maybe next year or the next, or maybe a decade down the long and winding road, the amber lights will flash on at Talladega Superspeedway to mark the first seconds of an ugly crash, and a driver will leave the speedway with a serious injury.

Or worse.

The law of averages demands payment.

You can build the cars like tanks. You can wrap the walls in pillows. You can limit the speeds with all manner of restriction.

You can’t stop the inevitable.

It’s a lottery of sorts as to how many drivers – and which ones – will ultimately pay the price for the sort of racing we have come to expect – almost demand – at this monster of a race track. The only way to avoid calamity is to not participate in the racing in the big packs, and anyone who hopes to win can’t do that.

Beyond the millions of dollars of equipment that was crumpled in the 25-car last-lap crash in Sunday’s race is the ominous specter of what could have happened.

Tony Stewart should have won the race. Instead, he was penalized for trying his best to do just that. With Michael Waltrip charging into the picture, helped by a push from Casey Mears, Stewart dropped left and cut across Waltrip’s lane, sparking mayhem. Waltrip turned Stewart, and Stewart’s car suddenly thought it could fly, and there it flew – over the rest of the field, like a Hot Wheels toy blown in the wind.

Stewart’s car landed – more or less – in Kasey Kahne’s face, and everybody scrambled as heartbeats raced and brakes strained against momentum.

The race ended. Matt Kenseth won. And there began the march to the infield medical center, where, eventually, everybody who went in left on their own power, if somewhat shaken.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was among those drawn into the conflagration – the same Dale Earnhardt Jr. who once roamed these high banks with the knowing flair of a magician, his talents once removed from the man – his father – who essentially owned the place.

Junior was not a happy fellow post-race. He did everything but tell people who seem to enjoy this style of racing that they should try it themselves some time. The word he used, one I’ve never heard from the lips of a race car driver, was bloodthirsty.

In the immediate aftermath of such an experience, those who were involved in it might be expected to be a bit overdramatic in their responses. But Junior, whose sensitivity to the dangers of such activity understandably would be at different levels than that of many of his competitors, seemed to have reached a new level of disgust with the inevitabilities associated with restrictor-plate racing.

There are no real solutions to this dilemma. There will be more big wrecks at Talladega. Cars will fly. More people will be at risk.

And amber lights will flash over it all.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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