Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Most Cup drivers pass on HANS device

Friday, Feb. 16, 2001 | 11:29 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It costs a little more than $1,000 and has been proven to prevent the types of injuries that killed three NASCAR drivers last year.

Although it is available to every competitor, only five of the 52 Winston Cup drivers who took part in Thursday's Twin 125 qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway wore the HANS head-and-neck restraint system.

Formula One has made the device mandatory for all of its races this season and Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) drivers must wear the HANS device during all oval races.

The device, which is designed to allow the head and neck to move as one entity rather than the head moving violently from front to back or side to side in a crash, has not been adopted by NASCAR as a mandatory safety item.

All told, 21 Winston Cup drivers have taken delivery of the HANS device, but only Kyle Petty, Dale Jarrett, Matt Kenseth, Brett Bodine and Andy Houston are wearing them this week.

Petty, whose son Adam died of head and neck injuries during a crash last year, said the reason more drivers don't use the device is simple.

"Everybody hates change," Petty said.

Rusty Wallace, who has walked away from several horrifying crashes during his 21-year Winston Cup career, offered a differing opinion.

"I've thought long and hard about (using it)," Wallace said. "I've had a lot of bad crashes ... and I've walked away from all of them. Now somebody tells me that I need to put a certain helmet on to hold my head up straight to survive a crash ... man, I don't know if that will help me or hurt me.

"You've got to base it on past experience. I'm thinking about it but I'm not comfortable with the helmet right now. I would say that it's a driver's preference based on how he has survived crashes in the past."

Wallace's most memorable crash came at Talladega Superspeedway in 1993. His car violently flipped end over end 23 times down the front stretch but Wallace escaped with only a mild concussion and a broken wrist.

Wallace said a driver's experience is the most valuable resource in most racing crashes.

"There's a lot of different ways that drivers brace for a crash," Wallace said. "Whenever I know that the car is lost, that it's going into the wall, I immediately get real low in the car. I get my hands and body low and I get my head down real low.

"There's a lot of drivers that, when they know they're going into the wall, they straighten up (and turn their heads to the side) and when they hit, they get a huge whiplash and it breaks their neck and kills them."

Veteran sports car driver Jim Downing helped developed the HANS device with his brother-in-law Dr. Robert Hubbard, a professor in the College of Engineering at Michigan State University.

NASCAR drivers Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper all died as a result of broken necks last year -- an injury that can be "95-percent eliminated" with the use of the HANS device, according to Downing.

Team owner Jack Roush, who still is searching for a sponsor for the No. 97 Taurus, agreed to decorate Busch's Winston Cup car to help kick off Ford's year-long 100th season of racing celebration.

The paint scheme depicts Henry Ford, racecar builder Oliver Barthel and Ford's original 1901 "Sweepstakes" car which won "the race that changed the world" on the hood.

The "race that changed the world" occurred on Oct. 10, 1901, when Henry Ford defeated Alexander Winton, an accomplished automobile builder/racer of the era, in a 10-lap race at the Detroit Driving Club in Grosse Pointe, Mich.

The win helped Ford launch his automobile manufacturing empire two years later.

"I'm black and blue from pinching myself," Wildberger said. "It's phenomenal. That was our first challenge -- to get the Dodge 10 into the race.

"Sunday will be another deal because that's 500 miles and that will be a test of (engine) durability."

Dale Jarrett, Joe Nemechek, Johnny Benson, Terry Labonte, Bobby Hamilton and John Andretti filled positions 31-36 based on their qualifying times while Bobby Labonte, Jeremy Mayfield, Robert Pressley, Elliott Sadler, Robby Gordon, Ron Hornaday and Brett Bodine made their way into the race on provisionals.

Todd Bodine, Morgan Shepherd, Dave Marcis, Hut Stricklin, Norm Benning, Dwayne Leik, Rick Mast, Derricke Cope and Carl Long packed up and went home following Thursday's qualifying races.