Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2009 22:25:07 GMT -5
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Post by RaceFanX on Sept 2, 2009 0:21:10 GMT -5
I'm no certified expert on automobile crashes (My bachelor's is in Journalism) but using the knowledge I have here are the reasons I believe Michael Waltrip cheated death on that faithful Saturday at Bristol, 1990... Michael likely survived this wreck for a variety of reasons... 1. Point of impact: Michael hit the unsecured backstretch gate in such a way that while the wall sheared his car in half, he personally missed the wall. He, like any driver in an American car, is seated on the left side and hits it with the right, slicing the car in half but not causing him to personally have an impact with the wall. 2: Bristol's track design: While the design for the gate caused the crash, the fact that Bristol is such a high-banked track makes gravity pull the car away from the wall and slide down the track. This again helps Michael to avoid a dangerous hit to outside wall with his unprotected body. (This does put at increased risk of being hit by another car however, thankfully that does not occur) 3. Inpromptu "Crumple zones": While not designed to crash like that, Waltrip's #30 Kool-Aid Pontiac Grand Prix took the blunt force of the impact. The car shredded in such a way that it slowed the crash to a survivable range when combined with the fact all the force of the crash went into the vehicle and not into Michael's body. This is actually similar to the reason why Indy cars are designed to shatter on impact and why road cars have weak spots built in. 4: It was in a NASCAR race: NASCAR racecars are among the toughest vehicles in motorsports and equipped with very advanced safety equipment (even back then) such as a rollcage and five-point harness. Because NASCAR races are such big events, the readiness and immediate availablity of expert medical care assured this would end happily. A crash like this in regular driving conditions would have likely had much worse results. 5: Luck: Simply put, Michael got lucky. If another car he hit him with the roll cage destroyed like that or the car was simply about a foot more to right that accident could have had a very different...and very fatal...result. These same factors also explain why fellow racer Mike Harmon escaped injury in a similar crash... www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuzCc0hBKYE(I'd say Harmon was likely more lucky, especially considering he got hit by another car after the initial impact)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2009 12:01:40 GMT -5
yeah I remember that second on....it's just strange thou all these bad crashes you see guys get in and you think there dead and then they just get up and walk away but then you look at Dale sr's crash didn't look to bad but it killed him
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