Brad Keselowski said it once, three years back, and he repeated it now: “Nobody likes it when cars come off the ground.” NASCAR has been facing the issue of cars lifting off the ground during nasty contacts and putting drivers at risk with the barrel rolls. The competition agency has been trying to fix it, but rather unsuccessfully.

But it’s not just a Next-Gen car problem, NASCAR’s history has been witnessing the problem for long before that. However, the pervasiveness of the problem has not been addressed in the Next-Gen models, and that’s a cause of concern for the teams, drivers in particular.

What has NASCAR done to solve the airborne issue?

Most recently, before the FireKeepers Casino 400 race in Daytona, NASCAR introduced a ‘shark fin’ on the right rear of the cars. This piece of accessory was added to prevent cars from flipping. Although the additional feature was tested in wind tunnels, it turned out to be ineffective during the race. Josh Berry’s high-octane crash was jaw-dropping for all spectators. The driver was left upside-down after the dramatic flips.

Before that week, it was Corey LaJoie’s ride that went airborne during the Coke Zero Sugar 400 race in Michigan. It is just getting an every-weekend occurrence now. It is hard to avoid these incidents anymore, and the problem certainly needs a detailed inspection to explore a fix. Brad Keselowski gave his opinion to Bob Pockrass when asked about it, by saying, “There’s a lot of factors that go into it. You know, I’m no engineer to solve the problem but I’m smart enough to know that it’s one that needs to be solved.”

Even in 2021, when Keselowski’s teammate suffered through the flipping fate, he called out NASCAR. “We’re not rudders. When that thing gets in the air, it lands where it wants to…We have no way to control where it comes down, so we absolutely have to find a way to keep them from coming off the ground.” Joey Logano met with the last lap accident during the GEICO 500 at Talladega.

So far, the safety features have been adequate, and no casualty has been reported from such blow-over crashes. But NASCAR shouldn’t wait for a casualty to impart the importance to this matter that it deserves.

Which have been the most wild airborne accidents in NASCAR’s history?

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Going back in time to 2015, Austin Dillon suffered some bruises after being in a crash. And many insiders raised concerns about the precariousness of the situation. People at the time opined that the close-quarter restrictor-plate racing format was dangerous. No one is left with much choice when cars go flying around across the track after crashing at 200mph.

If the phenomenon cannot be controlled, then at least the speed of the cars should be. “I think our speeds are too high, I really do. I think everybody can get good racing with lower speeds. We can work on that and then figure out a way to keep cars on the ground,” demanded Dillon after his 2015 Daytona crash.

In 2009 at Talladega, a teenager became a victim of one such crash when he broke his jawbone with debris. A similar accident also occurred in 2010 with Brad Keselowski at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which was the first of its kind on a non-superspeedway.

After having been through it and seeing his co-drivers suffer from it, Keselowski hopes that NASCAR finds a solution, quickly. “We start there – can’t have cars leaving the ground,” concludes Keselowski.