As someone who’s worked in auto racing for 14 years and been a fan my whole life, I’ve witnessed and experienced more disasters and near-disasters than I care to talk about. However, I’ve also witnessed great strides in motorsports safety, from local short tracks to the highest levels of stock car and open-wheel competition. Although racing may never be 100% safe—and I’ve even heard people argue it shouldn’t be or else the sport will lose some of its innate appeal—people continue to innovate on all fronts to push the frontiers of safety.
Many auto racing enthusiasts and professionals, including the International Motor Racing Research Center, point to 1994-2001 as the time when the modern “safety revolution” began in motorsports. This period started with three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna dying in a crash at the 1994 Grand Prix of San Marino. It peaked with seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. perishing in the 2001 Daytona 500. Many other notable deaths and major injuries occurred in between.
There have been many safety achievements since this dark era. It’s not like no one paid any attention to safety before then, though. Today, I want to give an overview of how motorsports safety has evolved since the beginning. From NASCAR to IndyCar to sports cars, here are the highlights of the safety evolution as it relates to driver protection, track design, spectator safety, and more.
Driver Protection
In the early days of racing, driver protection was basically non-existent. The standard attire was a pair of cotton overalls to keep oil and dirt off the driver’s clothing and a cloth cap with goggles. As late as the 1950s, Formula One legend Juan Manual Fangio was known to wear a polo shirt and work jacket behind the wheel! Such an outfit looked sharp, but it wasn’t going to offer much protection in a crash. Not only that, but some race cars didn’t even have seat belts. The Sports Car Club of America was the first major organization to mandate lap belts in 1954.
Today, all major series and most short tracks require fire-resistant driver’s suits and matching gloves. The flimsy skull-cap helmets of Fangio’s day have also gone by the wayside, replaced by helmets required to meet testing requirements from independent organizations like Snell and SFI. Major sanctioning bodies like NASCAR, Formula One, and IndyCar mandate a full-face helmet with a chin bar and visor. The flimsy or non-existent lap belts of the past have been replaced with five-point harnesses consisting of two shoulder belts, a lap belt, and two anti-submarine leg belts.
Another notable advancement in the past quarter century has been head and neck restraints. Systems like the HANS (Head and Neck Support) device and Hutchens Hybrid prevent the driver’s head from whipping forward during an impact, reducing the risk of everything from concussions to fatal basilar skull fractures. NASCAR mandated a head-and-neck restraint for its national series late in 2001, and Formula One did the same in 2003.
Track Design
The tracks people race on have also changed significantly over the years. Most notable in the 21st century has been the advent of the Steel and Foam Energy Reduction Barrier, or SAFER barrier. Developed by the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility and debuting at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this “soft wall” technology is placed in front of the traditional rigid concrete barrier to help absorb impact energy so less is transferred to the driver. Every major NASCAR and IndyCar track now has SAFER barriers at least partially installed. Some short tracks, including Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut and Oswego Speedway in New York, also have added SAFER barriers or another form of soft wall.
Track layouts have also changed to increase safety. More recently developed road courses like the Circuit of the Americas in Texas are wide and have large run-off areas to give drivers more space to avoid collisions. They also minimize instances where drivers go from very high to very low speeds, as mechanical failures in these zones greatly increase the chance of a hard impact. (Existing tracks have also made changes, such as Watkins Glen International adding the Inner Loop in 1992 after the death of J.D. McDuffie.) Some sanctioning bodies and states, such as the Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency (CIRSA), even publish race track safety guidelines and requirements.
Finally, there’s the advent of the pit road speed limit. In 1990, NASCAR tire changer Mike Rich was killed on pit road at Atlanta Motor Speedway after being struck by an out-of-control car. By April of the following year, NASCAR had mandated pit road speed limits at all tracks, with the exact speed ranging from 30 to 55 mph depending on the track. IndyCar followed suit in 1992, and now all series from F1 to IMSA restrict pit speeds.
Car Design
Just like street cars have gotten safer over the decades, so have race cars. Recently, the “halo bar” in F1 has also received a lot of attention. This was introduced in 2018 to give the cockpit a partial enclosure, protecting the driver’s head against impact. Though initially decried by purists, it has proven its worth on the track. A version of the halo bar on the NASCAR side is believed to have helped save Ryan Newman’s life in a 2020 crash at Daytona.
Speaking of NASCAR, they’ve pioneered several race car design features that are now widespread. In the mid-1960s, they started using fuel cells that were far less likely to rupture in a crash than traditional bladder-style fuel tanks. Then, in 1994, they responded to a spate of cars going airborne at high speed by introducing roof flaps that activate when a car spins to help hold it down. The flaps have gone through several iterations, but the basic principle remains the same.
Other car safety features now seen in most forms of motorsports include headrests and containment seats that reduce G-forces on the driver’s head and neck, larger spoilers and wings to keep the cars more stable, and data collection systems to compile information about how safety equipment is working. On a more local level, a spate of NASCAR Modified deaths in the 1980s and early 1990s, including Hall of Famer Richie Evans, prompted changes to the car’s chassis so they would be less rigid and absorb more impact.
Spectator Safety
Drivers and crews aren’t the only ones who need protection during an event, as unfortunate spectator tragedies have occurred. Most infamously, at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, driver Pierre Levegh’s vehicle flew into the crowd, killing him and more than 80 fans. In the late 1990s, there were fan deaths in IndyCar and Formula One after wheels broke off vehicles in accidents and went into spectator areas.
Changes to improve fan safety have involved a mix of vehicle modifications and improved barriers. On the car side, Formula One and IndyCar both introduced wheel tethers in 1999 to prevent them from coming loose. Eleven years beforehand, NASCAR introduced the carburetor restrictor plate to reduce speeds at certain tracks after Bobby Allison’s car flew into the catch fence in a 1987 Talladega Superspeedway event.
Speaking of catch fences, these have become taller, stronger, and sturdier over the years, with mesh that is strong enough to keep cars from breaking through them without obstructing spectator views. Fans are also more educated on what areas they can sit in, and with rare exceptions, haphazard gatherings in unsecured areas are a thing of the past. Medical response and procedures have also improved, so if something does occur, trained professionals are available to assist.
Thrills and Safety March On
As the late NASCAR Hall of Fame broadcaster Ken Squier once said, motorsports are about common people performing uncommon deeds. By emphasizing safety, sanctioning bodies ensure more drivers can accomplish these deeds and more fans can enjoy watching them.
The safety advances I’ve discussed here are merely the highlights from more than a century of innovation. There have also been “kill switches” to shut off engines if the throttle sticks, updated roll cages to prevent drivers from getting crushed, the elimination of “racing back to the caution” so disabled cars aren’t struck at high speeds, and much more. The safety advancements haven’t cooled my passion for motorsports, and I plan to be part of the action for as long as I’m able, which will be longer thanks to better safety.
