I had several things going on at the time of the wreck and subsequent replays so I was only half paying attention to the audio. Did I hear one of the commentators (waltrip?) say something about the rear axle housing possibly penetrating the interior of the car and maybe contributing to the injury? If so, that seems a bit out there given what we could see from the outside anyway?
The injury was a compression fracture to his T5 vertebra. Did that likely happen when the car came down, or during the rear-end impact?
Mikey was just speculating about possible injuries, and such speculation is almost always very wrong and stupid. Yes, if the rear end comes loose, the drive shaft can become disconnected and might damage a drivers feet or legs. Hasn't happened in NASCAR type cars for years, but it can happen.
I've seen 4,000 lb street stocks thrown into the air and flip back over front when a drive shaft comes loose in the front and digs in.
Normally sprint car and midget drivers are more likely to get injuries from the drive shaft.
No, Cousin Carl won't sub for Aric, he still has a personal endorsement contract with Toyota. He won't drive a Ford.
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PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
The injury may have been from the landing or the whip effect of the frontal impact. T-5 is about even with the bottom of the shoulder blades. Not a normal location for a racing compression fracture which are usuallly in the neck/ cervical area or the lower back/ lumbar area.
The injury may have been from the landing or the whip effect of the frontal impact. T-5 is about even with the bottom of the shoulder blades. Not a normal location for a racing compression fracture which are usuallly in the neck/ cervical area or the lower back/ lumbar area.
In the real world, thoracic spine fractures are quite unusual because the rib cage lends considerable support/protection from T1-T10. I'm sure it was a combination of the sudden stop from what, 170mph or more combined with the car bucking up and slamming down. Watching the slo-mo replay the back of the car REALLY got some altitude. I'm frankly amazed Aric didn't suffer significant internal organ or great vessel injury from that impact.
Does anyone know if the driver seat has any energy absorption capacity in its base when an axial load like what was placed on the car? Again, would really love to know what the measured energy/forces absorbed by the car were at impact. That sudden stop of forward motion was wicked......
IMO she has grit, and driving talent, AND looks good doing it.
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There's no practical way to obtain the necessary distance and velocity and mass data necessary to do the calculations. Obviously, the energy was dissipated over a significant distance, which explains the reason for zero fatalities.
Cloud Dancer wrote:
There's no practical way to obtain the necessary distance and velocity and mass data necessary to do the calculations. Obviously, the energy was dissipated over a significant distance, which explains the reason for zero fatalities.
There's no practical way to obtain the necessary distance and velocity and mass data necessary to do the calculations. Obviously, the energy was dissipated over a significant distance, which explains the reason for zero fatalities.
Didn't NASCAR incorporate crash data recorders into the cars to measure impact G force and some other parameters? From the video, it appears Almirola's car struck the 22 from just behind the left wheel and into the driver's door. Isn't that the most structurally robust area of the entire car for driver protection? Saved Joey, but wasn't kind to Almirola.
She has made some awesome escape moves over the years.
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If you play the video over and over, using stop-motion, you will see that the 22 was hit in the area of the trailing edge of the left-front tire. Plus, the 22 was skidding at a fast clip, in a slight angle, on a tragectory parallel to the normal flow of traffic. The 43 impacted with its right front. In other words, the crash force did not rise to the level that it takes to kill any of the participating drivers due to the fact that all cars were moving in the same direction, and kept moving after the impact. They moved a significant distance. Keep in mind also that the 43 had already slowed down quite a bit prior to contact (much slower than top racing speed). The video clearly shows the time span and distance of the dissipation of energy.
It's the head on crashes into objects like wall, especially walls that have not been replaced with Safer technology that have the greatest potential for injury.... all the force is transferred back into the car and into the driver.
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