Roll Over in Dover: Joey Logano walks away

It seemed like an innocent little tap from behind, but that little tap gave Joey Logano the ride of his life, that I call the Roll over in Dover. To watch that horrific crash and then to see Joey Logano walk away from the scene without a scratch was simply amazing. I lost count but I’m sure that Joeys’ car rolled down the track at least dozen times. If this isn’t a great testimony of how much engineering for safety went into the design of the new race car “The Car of Tomorrow”, I don’t know what is.

     It wasn’t that many years ago that the chances of NOT walking away from a horrific crash like this were very high. In fact, I’m fairly sure there would have been an air ambulance ride for the driver. Joey Logano is a lucky man because the Car of Tomorrow is here today.

     There are a few drivers from last years' season that are counting their lucky stars that NASCAR decided to move up the mandatory switch to the car of tomorrow by one year, from 2009 to 2008. There was the terrible crash with Sam Hornish and Jeff Gordon at Watkins Glen, the unbelievable wreck of Michael McDowell while qualifying in Texas and how can you forget David Gilliland and Bobby Labonte at Watkins Glen. I still get the chills just thinking about those wrecks, but the new race car design sure came through.

     Four of the main improvements are; the drivers' compartment which was enlarged by increasing the roof height by 2 ½ inches and moving the driver about 4 ½ inches closer to the center of the car, they added double frame rail with steel plating to cover the door bars on the drivers' side, they added energy absorbing materials between the door panels and the roll cage to calm the energy of an impact, and they also improved the fuel cell by making the bladder stronger, the container thicker with a safer check valve and energy absorbing material around the fuel cell. Let’s not forget the great HANS device (Head and Neck Support device) that was added. These are new safety features that come with the new car of tomorrow. There are also devices that were put in place earlier that are still used today. Remember way back when the race car would go into a high speed spin and the car would lift into the air and flip over; well, they fixed that by adding roof flaps, which open if the car spins at high speed. By having the flaps open the air escapes through them and eliminating lift, keeping the car on the ground. Furthermore, they are still using restrictor plates to keep speeds to less than 200 mph on the high banked tracks (Daytona and Talladega).

     Anyway I’m sure that Joey Logano will never forget the Roll over in Dover. And I’m glad he walked away from the accident because he is going to become a great driver who will be around for a long time.