Kyle Busch pushes for even more safety improvements at tracks
The last time Kyle Busch was at Daytona International Speedway he was badly injured in the closing laps of the season-opening NASCAR XFINITY Series race in February.
Returning to Daytona one week after earning his first Sprint Cup victory of the season at Sonoma Raceway, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver used his media availability to call for further safety innovations and the removal of grass from tracks.
Prior to this weekend's NASCAR events, Daytona International Speedway made a number of safety improvements to the area between the exit of pit road and the entrance to Turn 1, where Busch's incident occurred. The track installed Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barriers, changed the angle of the wall and installed additional fencing along the new wall.
Before the weekend officially got underway, Busch took a lap around the facility with track president Joie Chitwood III and NASCAR officials to inspect the new safety improvements.
Busch said drivers "never really feel safe," but he is "grateful" for the improvements made by Daytona, and the other tracks on the circuit. in the months following his incident.
"There's certainly always room for improvement," Busch said. "Any facility you go to, I feel like there's room for improvement."
With his accident serving as a catalyst for further safety innovations, Busch has inadvertently become the driving force behind the overall safety conversation inside the industry. Busch said he never wanted to take on the role of a safety advocate, but his incident in February thrust him into it.
"There's a lot of improvements that all of these racetracks can make," Busch said, indicating drivers cannot plan for every situation and tracks have to take the responsibility of planning for the worst possible circumstance. "I think that we all need to just take a step and pour every effort into every area of the racetracks."
One of the initiatives Busch said he would like to see at each facility is the removal of any grass adjacent to the racing surface. One of the improvements made at Daytona prior to this weekend's events was the removal of the grass going into Turn 1, with an estimated 20,000 square feet of asphalt added to the track run-off area.
Using Ryan Briscoe's wild flip at the end of last weekend's IndyCar Series race at Auto Club Speedway as an example, Busch argued grass has the potential to cause a serious situation for wrecking race cars.
"In reality, there's no sense in grass," he said. "We have absolutely no reason to have grass at any of these facilities. I think that needs to be one of the next biggest pushes we all have. ... I think there's still a lot of room to grow to get better."
While Daytona has told Busch they are limited to the total area of asphalt it is permitted to have at the facility, he remained committed to the fact that grass causes more issues than benefits.
"I've never seen a car flip over because it's gone through a puddle, but I guess it could happen," Busch said. "When a car turns around backwards and it gets to grass and it starts to lift and then it tumbles because it continually keeps getting chunked up in the grass, that's not right.
"The hits that keep coming that are pretty violent," he said of flipping through the grass. "I've been in a hit like that I've been over on my lid a few times and it's not fun to continually get those beating and banging around inside that race car does not feel good."
Busch pointed to track such as Phoenix International Raceway, Darlington Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway as facilities on the Sprint Cup schedule where there is no grass along the racing surface.
Aside from removing grass from the facility, Busch also indicated he would like to see even more improvements at Daytona, primarily when it comes to the openings for the infield road course.
"We'd love to be able to see that area closed up like it is off Turn 4," he said.
Busch indicated other drivers — primarily Ryan Newman and Jeff Burton — have been bigger safety proponents over the past few years, but ultimately the responsibility does not fall on the drivers.
"These racetracks know what needs to happen; it's not a secret," Busch argued. "It's not us drivers telling them where we'd like to see a wall, it's kind of taking a survey of driving around the racetrack and seeing where a race car could hit a wall.
"It's not rocket science; it just needs to happen," he said.
VIDEO: A look back at the Kyle Busch wreck and injuries that prompted safety improvements in NASCAR
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