Tony Stewart came away with the checkered flag at the COPD NASCAR 300 today though that isn’t the story line after a horrific crash involving Kyle Larson. It resulted in his no.32 car torn in half by the catch fence and is also a testament to the safety features of the car as he was able to escape the mangled wreck.
Spectators in the stands did not fair as well as Larson. A tweet from Jeff Gluck stated “I can see multiple stretchers being used in the stands. Medics working frantically.”
Brent James indicated that “pit road being cleared to land helicopter at Daytona.”
A picture posted showed a tire in the stands.
NASCAR on ESPN wrote “15 spectators transported to area hospitals; 1 on the way to surgery with head trauma.” What is maddening is that at the opening of SportsCenter no mention of the crash it was on Danica Patrick.
It happened nearing on the last lap of the race and it is a reminder to sports fans that at certain venues that paying attention is a must always. For the National Hockey League pucks get flown into the stands and in 2002 a 13-year old got killed after being hit in the head and in Major League Baseball there’s a threat of being hit with a foul ball or in some cases a player may lose his grip on the bat itself. The National basketball Association is different of course a basketball could go flying and hit someone, yet usually it’s a player hustling for a loose ball and ends up flying into the stands.
Even with the safety measure put in place by NASCAR and an enclose track today showed that no matter what measures get put into place there’s no full proof way to keep the crowd safe.
Here’s a video of the crash.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK9T9NdH-ec