When most people think of sports, the first thing that comes to mind is probably football, basketball, maybe baseball, or soccer - usually a competition that involves a type of ball and two teams going head to head. But NASCAR is a different kind of sport, it is a motorsport. Forty purpose-built race cars with a team of pit crews, engineers, and mechanics battle every week on a variety of racetracks across the country. Just like any other sport, NASCAR has its own rules of competition, scheduled events, a points system, and a champion crowned at the end of the season. And just like many other sports, the possibility of player injury is also very real. In fact, with drivers competing in vehicles traveling upwards of 200 miles per hour, motorsports
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The new car featured a driver seat closer to the center, larger crumple zones in the front and rear to dissipate energy away from the driver and more aerodynamic downforce to reduce the car from snapping out of control mid-corner. NASCAR admits “had it not for those [R&D] experts, [they] might have concentrated on the front bumper, because that was the popular opinion in the industry for what needed to be worked on” (Nelson in Anderson). In realizing answers lied outside the scope of traditional racing wisdom, NASCAR was able to obtain and implement solutions that save the lives of racecar drivers today. Despite the actions of the sanctioning body clearly demonstrating their commitment to make racing as safe as possible, some still doubted their effectiveness. A common claim is the phenomenon known as the Peltzman Effect. This is the tendency for people to react to safety regulation by increasing other risky behavior and possibly offsetting the benefits of those regulations (Pope). In NASCAR, this would translate to drivers racing more aggressively and competitively because they feel better protected by the equipment around them. Research proved this was true, however there was one major
The new car featured a driver seat closer to the center, larger crumple zones in the front and rear to dissipate energy away from the driver and more aerodynamic downforce to reduce the car from snapping out of control mid-corner. NASCAR admits “had it not for those [R&D] experts, [they] might have concentrated on the front bumper, because that was the popular opinion in the industry for what needed to be worked on” (Nelson in Anderson). In realizing answers lied outside the scope of traditional racing wisdom, NASCAR was able to obtain and implement solutions that save the lives of racecar drivers today. Despite the actions of the sanctioning body clearly demonstrating their commitment to make racing as safe as possible, some still doubted their effectiveness. A common claim is the phenomenon known as the Peltzman Effect. This is the tendency for people to react to safety regulation by increasing other risky behavior and possibly offsetting the benefits of those regulations (Pope). In NASCAR, this would translate to drivers racing more aggressively and competitively because they feel better protected by the equipment around them. Research proved this was true, however there was one major