OT: NASCAR driver Jason Leffler dead
Sad days.
Thoughts and prayers to his family.
Awful to hear. Those things just don't look safe. Do you know if it rolled?
He was racing in a sprint car race (hasn't raced in NASCAR in quite some time) and it flipped/rolled. Haven't seen a replay, just pictures, but you can tell since the wing on the top is all crushed and mangled.
Odd to have a death from a roll is there any more information? Did the HANS device fail or was he crushed? Yes racing is dangerous and they are at peril at any moment but for the most part the modern safety measures are doing a great job. Barring a blunt force impact it's hard to have a severe injury like this in today's racing.
Odder still that its the second racing death this week. A track Marshall was killed at the Canadian gp (F1). He was run over by a wrecker while removing a stricken car from the side of the track. Freak accident.
I could be wrong, but it looks like the rollbar collapsed, which should never happen.
The roll cage looks like it should, and the wing was designed to flatten like that, dissapating energy. The picture of the car doesn't look like a crash that would produce a fatality, but that track is fast, and he hit the wall pretty hard.
FWIW, I used to race against Jason in USAC Silver Crown in the late 90's/early 00's. He was a good guy.
Condolences to his family and friends.