'All of us in NASCAR or IndyCar strap in knowing what we’re doing is dangerous'

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Ryan Newman (6) goes airborne during a last-lap crash in the 2020 Daytona 500. Newman had to be hospitalized after the scary incident. (Photo: Peter Casey, USA TODAY Sports) Those closest to racing say danger cannot be disentangled from motorsports. In fact, they say, it lives at the sport's very core. Take away the danger and you no longer have a marketable product. “There’s some evidence, broadly, that the more dangerous, or perceived danger is on the track, that that attracts more viewers,” Miles said. “But that’s not the recipe we’re going to follow. We’re not going to see how dangerous we can make it.” 'What are we doing?' Less than a year after Miles watched at the Fontana super speedway in 2014, the sport neared a breaking point. Graham Rahal’s first win in seven years, which came during the 2015 mid-season race at Fontana, was overshadowed by racing that reminded drivers of the conditions that resulted in Dan Wheldon’s crash and death at Las Vegas in 2011. High temperatures mandated changes to the aero kits that made the track slick and bunched up cars. The result was a then-series record 80 lead changes during the 500-mile race as cars went five-wide and multiple times two rows of cars were driving four-wide within feet of one another. Sebastien Bourdais: 'It's pretty straightforward simple that I'd be dead' Unbreakable: Hinchcliffe is an IndyCar 'superhero,' a ready-made 'Netflix special' The race essentially ended with the car of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver Ryan Briscoe sailing through the air, end over end, and into the infield. Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay was pinched out of a spot in the pack, touched wheels with multiple cars and careened left into Briscoe with two laps to go. It followed a crash involving Will Power and Takuma Sato seven laps earlier that brought out a red flag. “What are we doing? What ARE we doing?” said defending series champ Power after the race. “I’m so happy no one was really hurt. As exciting as it is, it’s insane, because you can’t get away.”

Added then-defending Indy 500 champion Juan Pablo Montoya: “We shouldn’t be racing like this. Sooner or later, somebody’s going to get hurt. We don’t need to be doing this.” Two months later, IndyCar driver Justin Wilson died a day after he suffered severe brain injuries when debris from Sage Karam’s car struck his helmet during a record-setting 11th caution flag at Pocono, the 2.5-mile “tricky triangle.” Wilson's death was a result of an incredibly unlikely series of events but sparked a four-year crusade that resulted in the development of the series’ aeroscreen, which will make its debut March 15 in St. Petersburg. Though TV ratings didn’t reflect it, Miles remembers interest levels going through the roof for those two races at Fontana. But it made him uncomfortable. Miles contends that chaotic conditions at the Fontana and Pocono super speedways weren’t the lone factor in IndyCar leaving those tracks over the past five years, but he does stand firm that the series has a mission that goes far beyond delivering a product that thrives on danger. Over the years, the relationship between the danger of racing and its appeal has varied, based on total auto racing deaths across the world as recorded by Wikipedia, and Harris and Gallup polls about auto racing's place among fans’ favorite sports. Through the 1990s, though, the number of deaths and the appeal of racing rose at a similar rate. Since, both have dropped off as safety has increased. This is drawing from a wide swath of data and danger certainly isn't the only factor, but it does lend evidence to the idea that the appeal of danger is an issue racing leaders must acknowledge. IndyCar team co-owner and former open-wheel driver Bobby Rahal points to the early days of the IRL and previous stretches for NASCAR, as periods of auto racing that struggled with juggling the excitement vs. danger factors. The basis of the IRL was to put together an oval-only series that some team owners believed was where the most exciting racing lived. Because of the limited options, this pushed open-wheel races onto many high-banked ovals that, combined with high levels of down-force on the cars, creaied what many believed were disasters waiting to happen. "But it didn't seem to create more interest," said Rahal, whose team raced in the rival CART series until switching over full-time in 2004. "It led to close, risky racing, and it only increased the danger — not the interest. "TV ratings didn't go up. Grandstands still weren't full, and those tracks instead hosted monstrous crashes at the start of the IRL." In NASCAR, Rahal has watched as the series relied on restrictor plates for more than 30 years (and a similar technology starting last year) to slow the speeds of stock cars, creating bunched-up packs racing fans are used to seeing in the series. Slower speeds were supposed to keep racing safer without the "high-risk, high-reward" factor. Instead, it often creates opportunities for finishes like Monday night. It's the opposite approach the IRL took, and yet, similar results emerge. "All it takes is one guy to make a mistake, and half the field disappears," Rahal said. "I'm not sure anybody wants that." Today, there are SAFER barriers at tracks, the HANS device and stricter enforcement of safety regulations that have made motorsports safer in this century. 'Racing is a spectacle, it's show business' Newman may very well owe his life to NASCAR’s safety advancements over the past 20 years. On the final straight in Monday's Daytona 500, a well-meaning nudge from Ryan Blaney sent fellow-Ford driver Newman careening into the wall and spinning through the air before he was nailed on his driver-side at 200 mph by Corey LaJoie. Blaney said after the race that he was trying to push the Ford to the checkered flag, and that the move was very routine in the world of NASCAR. Hamlin wins second-straight Daytona 500: Ryan Newman injured in scary crash Daytona 500 crash: Drivers express concern after Newman suffers serious injuries But that track has picked up a reputation for such accidents, especially with a format that allows for races to continue past 500 miles due to caution flags in pursuit of the type of excitement-filled finishes drivers and fans live for. "The only driver happy if a race finishes on a yellow is the guy in the lead. The rest want another crack at it," racing legend Mario Andretti said. "And fans who pay for a ticket want to see it go to the finish like it should. I applaud NASCAR for having overtime finishes. "Nothing is worse, in my opinion, than a race finishing under yellow. It takes everything away from what we're looking for. The racing is a spectacle, and it's show business, at the end of the day." Newman’s doing is dangerous,” said IndyCar veteran Conor Daly, who drove an Xfinity Series race in 2018. “We’re not driving around in safety bubbles. It is dangerous, no matter what you’re doing, but that’s what you’re prepared for. “That’s part of the reason why I love it: the danger, the adrenaline, the high-level of performance required both physically and mentally. That’s what we grew up loving.” Daly was watching the Daytona 500 broadcast live and said that though the fire and final collision were initially jarring, he wasn’t too taken aback about the incident because he's seen drivers recover quickly from such violent wrecks. But then he saw the AMR safety team taking much longer than normal to release Newman from the wreckage. “You almost expect it when you’re at Daytona,” he said of the wreck. “It looked wild. “But everyone is excited for the last lap there, and is there normally a crash? I think we’ve realized how safe the sport of NASCAR has been for so many years. It’s just a part of it, and it’s not a bad part of it. Those guys are just pushing for the win, and they have confidence in their cars to do what they want to do, and if things go wrong, they’ll be okay.” In that way, according to Daly, drivers nowadays in NASCAR and IndyCar have more confidence than ever in the safety of their cars. Drivers of the past were not any less ready to go full-bore, but racing today is safer than it's ever been. “There are always going to be dangerous parts of what we do, but compared to the 70s and 80s when my dad (racer Derek Daly) raced in Formula One and IndyCar, it’s so much safer,” he said. “And a lot of drivers and their families are so much more confident in what we show up to do every weekend because there are these incredible people doing their jobs at making us safer."