Over the years, the racing community has seen many skillful drivers fall victim to some of the most horrific crashes. While the sport has evolved on the safety ground with the introduction of these sophisticated Next-Gen racecars, racing a 700-plus horsepower racecar on the confined spaces of the track with fierce competition certainly has its own risks.
‘Risks’ might as well be a mild word for it, as injuries on track involve horrific career-ending injuries. With the Cup Series rookie sensation, Noah Gragson experiencing the aftermath of a vicious crash at WWT Gateway, the NASCAR community witnessed the ugly side of the sport. In light of this, Kyle Busch ahead of his Sonoma run gave his thoughts on the #42 driver’s horrific crash that had close similarities to his elder brother’s.
With Gragson developing concussion-like symptoms, a few days after the race, he missed the road race at Sonoma and his replacement, Grant Enfinger, from GMS Racing piloted the #42 car.
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Kyle Busch Raises Concerns Over NASCAR’s Next-Gen Cars, Pointing Out Their Evident Weakness
The recent Cup Series race at WWT Raceway at Gateway saw a horrific incident where Legacy Motor Club driver and rookie sensation Noah Gragson, in lap 197 of the race, lost his brakes coming into the turn. The driver overshot his entry, and his car kept going forward until it crashed sideways into the outer wall.
While a simple mechanical failure was the cause, Jimmie Johnson‘s driver had to pay a hefty price as he soon started showing concussion-like symptoms. With another driver receiving the blunt force of the impact to the head, much like his elder brother, Kurt Busch, the #8 driver reflected on the unfortunate incident while raising some valid questions about the Next-Gen car’s safety.
Answering Bob Pockrass’ question, Busch said, “Bummer, for him, I mean we saw a few big impacts last week, his seemed to be worst just after the brunt of how it all transpired right, so you know.”
The Richard Childress Racing driver then addressed the bulkiness of these Next-Gen cars, reiterating his stance on safety. “The safety advancements of the car and things like that are all great. But we need to withstand big hits and hits like that and whatnot, but you know I feel like we keep adding material and keep adding weights and keep making these things heavier, you know.”
Rowdy then went on to raise a solid question to the sanctioning body, “We used to run 3,400-pound cars now we’re like 3,600-pound cars, so what’s the limit, what’s the level of how heavy is too heavy?”
The #8 driver then pointed out the evident weakness, “There’s a few areas of the car that are really really really stiff and don’t have any sort of crush zone like the old cars used to and that’s why those bars [One Larson’s car] broke and we didn’t cut any stiff out to soften up the frame rail,” said the driver, as the engineers at NASCAR chose to add more stiffeners, making it heavier.
As a conclusion, Busch offered a quick reminder, saying, “I’m not a genius but at some point, we all have to reimagine some things.”
With another driver falling victim to a concussion, Kyle Busch also gave his thoughts about his retired brother’s recent milestone.
Kyle Busch Reflects on Kurt Busch’s Recent Milestone Despite His Brother’s Early Retirement
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Last year NASCAR saw a dark phase with started with Kyle Busch’s elder brother and former 23XI Racing driver, Kurt Busch crashing out at Pocono Raceway. The vicious crash left the driver in serious pain as it ended the #45 driver’s career abruptly because of concussion-like symptoms.
During the recent interview, Kurt’s younger brother thanked a reporter when he asked about Kurt’s recent induction into the Hall of Fame. Busch congratulated, “Congratulations to Kurt on being inducted into the West Coast Motorsports Hall of Fame, that’s really really cool, something special,”
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Furthermore, Busch reminisced about how far “two punk kids from Vegas” came up to be the greatest names of the sport. “But you know, growing up in Vegas is two little punk kids and making it big time with you know not a lot of money just a lot of talent was certainly special,” reflected a grateful Busch.
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