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April 08, 2026 at
10:28:47 AM
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12/01/2004
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436
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Reply to:
Posted By: Murphy on April 07 2026 at 09:40:23 PM
l've always wondered about the solid metal seats. Why isn't there some padding in the bottom? It could be something like the 2" blue wrestling mat used in gym class. Wouldn't something like that help ease the impact in a crash like this?
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Butler Built does make what they call a crash pad. It's a pad thats made of a high density material it goes on the bottom of the seat and up the back of the seat a short distance.
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April 08, 2026 at
12:54:17 PM
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08/16/2009
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4664
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Reply to:
Posted By: Dryslick Willie on April 08 2026 at 09:32:08 AM
Not an expert on this by any means, but it looks like sprint cars have two rather glaring safety issues. I don't believe either could be totally remedied. The first is the open cockpit that can have a wheel from another car entering the open cockpit. We've lost drivers that way. The other is the back injuries which seem to be the hot topic of the moment. I don't remember this much attention being given to it back when Kevin Swindell crashed. I guess we have seen more of them recent and now have Chase Johnson's accident fresh on everyone's mind. Seems like I remember an interview with Lavern (spelling?) Nance in Open Wheel magazine back in the day. I remember his comments where he talked about the driver having the force of the rear end coming up and slamming him when he landed on the wheels, or something along those lines. Apparently this was on his radar back then. One question, I see the CASM devices being advertised, but does this fix it?
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To your last question, I wonder if Anthony uses this device? If not, could this have prevented his injury? If he is using the device already, did this prevent a much worse outcome? Unfortunately, we can't measure this on a case-by-case basis and only analyze data over years of collection.
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April 08, 2026 at
02:09:12 PM
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12/06/2004
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1169
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From DIRTRACKR "Macri is a CASM customer, with that company touting him on social media, and Macri running CASM decals on his car."
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April 08, 2026 at
02:14:32 PM
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06/04/2012
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1839
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Reply to:
Posted By: Dryslick Willie on April 08 2026 at 09:32:08 AM
Not an expert on this by any means, but it looks like sprint cars have two rather glaring safety issues. I don't believe either could be totally remedied. The first is the open cockpit that can have a wheel from another car entering the open cockpit. We've lost drivers that way. The other is the back injuries which seem to be the hot topic of the moment. I don't remember this much attention being given to it back when Kevin Swindell crashed. I guess we have seen more of them recent and now have Chase Johnson's accident fresh on everyone's mind. Seems like I remember an interview with Lavern (spelling?) Nance in Open Wheel magazine back in the day. I remember his comments where he talked about the driver having the force of the rear end coming up and slamming him when he landed on the wheels, or something along those lines. Apparently this was on his radar back then. One question, I see the CASM devices being advertised, but does this fix it?
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I remember watching a video from Chase Johnson and him sharing pictures, video, and his perspective of the crash. He was very transparent, honest, and did not throw anyone under the bus as to what potentially caused the injuries. He showed all of the safety equipment and said that he always put a lot of focus on his seats & belts as do a lot of race car drivers. Had a lot of top of line equipment and thanked the manufacturers for helping save his life and even prevent even harsher injuries. It did appear that the impact of his crash caused movement and bending to the mounts and some things shifted. Not sure if the CASM device would solve this completely but maybe with some testing. It has been a few months since I watched it but it appeared that had a lot to do with his back injury, not to say thats what happened with Macri.
I know that while sometimes it seems like the containment seats are all metal or carbon fiber, a number of drivers have molded seats to their body that I think it is scientifically proven to take a lot of the shock and G force of a downward impact off of the spine. The back injury is somewhat of a moving target in my view. Some of it could be caused of the gyrations happening in the flip then slamming on the ground, or just a direct impact.
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April 08, 2026 at
02:32:20 PM
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01/06/2009
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511
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Alpinestars make an air vest that the motocross guys have started using. Not sure on the specifics but I wonder if something like that would help.
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