NASCAR to now focus on catchfencing

The elusive nature of safety technology dictates that eliminating one problem will highlight another. With SAFER barriers greatly reducing injury from wall collisions, drivers and scientists alike expect car-to-car crashes to become the focus. "I think (deaths from barrier impacts) are going to drop off the radar screen, if you count after 2001," said Dr. Dean Sicking, a University of Nebraska professor who developed the SAFER barrier. The next step, Sicking said, is to look above the track's walls. DeLand's Tony Renna was killed in October 2003 when the IndyCar he was testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway went airborne in a turn and broke apart on a catchfence post. "Improving those could be a great benefit to the driver and the fan," Sicking said. "There is the potential – I don't think it's really happened yet – for some pieces of a car to go through the fence, which would be a horrible problem for the fan." St Petersburg Times