Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.
You can add NASCAR to the late Edgar Bergen and the NCAA on the list of people who talk out of both sides of their mouths.
In the aftermath of the Dale Earnhardt tragedy last February, the fourth driver fatality in one of its primary touring series in two years, NASCAR president Mike Helton said the sanctioning body wouldn't make any new safety rules "just for the sake of making change."
He said virtually the same thing Tuesday, after NASCAR made public the findings of a $1 million, six-month investigation of the Earnhardt crash.
Yet, this is an organization that changes the rules under which the cars race almost at whim. During the middle of the season.
NASCAR not changing the rules just for the sake of making change? Gimme a break. These guys change the rules more often than the big kid on the sandlot who loses a coin flip for first "ups." Ask Tony Stewart, or anybody else who doesn't drive a Dodge on the Winston Cup circuit.
Just watch the Chevy cars go on a six-race win streak. The next weekend, NASCAR will try to level the playing field by making the Chevy guys drive without a right rear tire.
That's an exaggeration, of course. But the irony is that NASCAR always has been willing to effect immediate change when it comes to enhancing "the show." Apparently, changing the rules to enhance the life expectancy rate of the guys who put on the show isn't quite as high on the priority list.
At least this time around, Helton didn't sound like a "Gas Bag," which one media critic labeled him in the wake of the Earnhardt tragedy. On Tuesday, he and NASCAR took a step in the right direction by agreeing to install "black boxes" in the cars to aid in better understanding crashes (next year), opening a research center (next year) and hiring a medical liaison to work with local tracks (next year).
But those are hardly original ideas. CART and the Indy Racing League have been using black boxes for years, and both have a full staff of surgeons, physicians and safety experts -- not just one liaison -- that travels from race to race.
For me, the most compelling part of Tuesday's testimony was footage of NASCAR veteran Johnny Benson hitting the wall with a glancing blow, then watching him be tossed around inside the car like a crash test dummy. But NASCAR took a baby step when it could have taken a major leap, at least from a perception standpoint, by making the driver's head-and-neck restraint system mandatory, rather than only encouraging its use.
While NASCAR has lapped its Indy-car brethren at the turnstiles, it can learn a thing or two from the open wheel guys when it comes to safety. The first big-time auto race I saw in person was the 1973 Indy 500, a dreadful year in which driver Swede Savage was killed in a fiery wreck upon belting the inside wall in Turn 4.
The next year, the inside wall in Turn 4 was gone. So were 80-gallon fuel tanks. They were reduced to 40 gallons and moved behind the driver, instead of on either side of him, and lined with protective bladders used in Vietnam helicopters.
Maybe it's just coincidence that Swede Savage was the last Indy-car driver to burn to death. But just maybe it was an aggressive approach to safety that made his risky occupation a little bit less so.
