NASCAR needs to address driver safety concerns. The current.

With the knockouts firmly underway, it’s the business end of the NASCAR season, bringing plenty of tension to the sport’s protagonists. But this past weekend, like Chase Elliott After winning the Talladega Superspeedway, the drivers’ disquiet had surfaced for much of the season: questioning the safety of the Next Gen car.

Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman to be missing from the grid due to concussions in cars Next Generation, Cody Ware confirmed on Tuesday that he will ignore Charlotte Roval because of the broken leg he suffered in The Next Generation. Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvic spoke out in their criticism of NASCAR’s approach to safety this season. On Saturday, Elliott said he feels safety in the series is “regressing”.

With so many opinions exchanged on the biggest topic in any motorsport, ESPN turned to Ryan McGee and Marty Smith for their take on driver safety in NASCAR.

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Blacksmith: It’s really obvious when you hear drivers at the Hall of Fame, first ballot level voice their concerns. Hamlin was extremely vocal at Talladega that racing cars weren’t as safe as they should be, and drivers have told NASCAR time and time again. According to Hamlin, NASCAR wanted the Next Gen car at all costs, and then he repeated himself: By all means. I’ve had conversations with drivers, this is something they’re very concerned about and they’re calling for change. I hope NASCAR listens to them and they better listen to them.

McGee: And I think that’s different now from not so long ago, and certainly not when you and I first started introducing the sport, that they would listen. Now you and I have lived through generations of racing, and have had complaints before, and a lot of times the answer is, “Well, this is what you got. Let your people do the work. .” I really think now the difference is that NASCAR President Steve Phelps talks to drivers all the time. It has had to come to an unfortunate spot with many drivers, but it looks like they are in the process of trying to make the changes as immediate as possible. Is that yours?

Blacksmith: They need and I think they will amend. These cars are very tough. There’s not much giving when you crash, and they don’t break the way the previous race car did. And so the car raced first, because there was more lap in it, there were more concessions. It’s not rigid. That energy has been dissipated from the driver in a different way than it is now. More power is coming to the driver as the car is already much stiffer.

McGee: I go back to when I was in the Indy Racing League in the late ’90s, and it was like this: This is a spec car, not a lot of innovative engineering in the race shop; it is, “This is the car you have.” They’re breaking the guys’ backs because everything is so focused on frontal impacts. They don’t think clearly about cars backing up against a wall. Everyone is fine if they crash straight ahead or even if they bump into each other, but as soon as they back up even a small bump, they crack their vertebrae. That’s what this feels like. There is so much focus in one direction that perhaps not enough in the other.

Blacksmith: Drivers will tell you, they implore NASCAR: “We need to change this.” And according to those drivers, NASCAR had a hard time getting this thing to the track, and they did, and it came with great fanfare. You and I have been very, very pleased with the race and the show, but when the show ends with people who may not have escaped an accident the way they did on a race car in the past, it’s time to change. change. Stage = Stage.

McGee: Everyone I’ve talked to is working really hard right now. It’s just a matter of getting it to the track on Sunday.

Blacksmith: When you have a guy like Hamlin saying out loud, “It needs a complete redesign,” I don’t think he’s saying it casually. I think he meant what he was saying, that frustration and anxiety got to the point where NASCAR needed to listen to these teams’ engineers, and I think we’re at that point. As drivers start to really speak out and “Good Morning America” ​​is telling stories about NASCAR safety, I think the sanctioning agency will listen.

McGee: And I think they’re listening. It’s just a matter of how quickly they can turn the tide. If they can bring that car to the race we’ve seen this season and remove these issues, it’s a home run.

Blacksmith: Successful. This year’s competition is fierce. We’ve had a record number of winners and it’s just been a new energetic season and it’s been great to see. But this is something that is very concerning to competitors, and so I think NASCAR understands that it is time to make some changes.

McGee: The only thing that can detract from what we both agree on as one of the greatest, most competitive seasons in the sport’s history is this story right here. And so you have to fix it. You have to.