Elliott Sadler Crash Exposes Pocono Safety Weaknesses

• • Bob Zeller
  • Motorsports Editor

When a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver slides sideways off a straightaway like Elliott Sadler did Sunday at Pocono Raceway, how is it possible that he can hit anything directly head-on, as Sadler did?

It's possible because Pocono has a earthen berm at that section of the track that juts out from the regular inside wall, sticking into the runoff area. The berm is fronted by an old steel guardrail, and it was into that guardrail that Sadler's No. 19 Ford hit dead head-on in the most violent crash of the year and the most needlessly violent crash in quite some time.

It was the second horrific crash of the summer at Pocono, and several drivers, including Sunday's winner, Greg Biffle, and points leader Kevin Harvick, harshly criticized the lack of modern safety standards at the Pennsylvania track after the first crash, which saw Kasey Kahne's car nearly sail over the outside wall in the June race.

As detailed by FanHouse last week, Pocono has promised changes, explaining that they couldn't be made after the June race because there simply wasn't enough time before Sunday's event.

The criticism focused on the lack of enough SAFER barriers at Pocono, the lack of enough catch fencing, the use of old steel guardrails, the presence of earthen berms and the existence of grass runoff areas.

The latter three were factors in Sadler's crash, but the thing that made it so bad was the fact that the berm Sadler hit juts out into the runoff area.



The crash was triggered when Jimmie Johnson turned Kurt Busch's car between turns one and two while trying to draft Busch. Johnson took the blame and apologized on his radio, but Busch was hot about it.

"I got wrecked on the straightaway," Busch said. "Jimmie Johnson drove straight through us."

Busch's car went into the outside wall, then slid across the track, hit the wet, grassy runoff area, sailed into the inside guardrail and finally came to a stop back near the track surface.

Sadler, who was having a good weekend at Pocono, having won the NASCAR truck race on Saturday, was hit from behind as he slowed down because of Busch's crash.



His car sailed off the track toward the inside wall, skated on the wet grass and slammed head-on into the earthen berm outcropping.

The violent impact ripped the engine and one wheel from his car, and left Sadler wincing in pain and gasping for breath as he crawled out of his car. But he was not significantly injured.

"I'm OK. I'm a little sore," Sadler told reporters after coming out of the infield care center. "The breath definitely got knocked out of me. It was probably the hardest hit I've ever had in a race car, but I've got to thank all my guys back at home that put these things together. It knocked the engine out of it. I know it knocked the swaybar tube and the whole swaybar out of it and the whole left-front wheel assembly, but I'm still in one piece so it did its job. The way it hit the guardrail back there was pretty tough."

When Busch began to crash, "I saw some smoke," Sadler said. "Everybody started checking up. I checked up. Whoever was running behind us did not and ran in the back of us and knocked us down through the grass."

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