| Modern racing has developed drastically from the | | | | be dispersed onto the shoulders which can absorb |
| early 1920s and 1930s competitions that included such | | | | more than the soft tissue in the torso. When you |
| legends as the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows. The | | | | combine the advances in the seat composition with |
| story stands that in the 1930s cars had to undergo | | | | the integration of the HANS system and the |
| weight checks, similar to wrestling competitions. The | | | | ubiquitous use of roll cages within the car structure, |
| Mercedes-Benz car was found to be 751 kg of the | | | | the multipoint seatbelts, NASCAR drives stay in their |
| 750 kg limit. Who came up with the idea to sand off | | | | seats and are well protected from even the most |
| the paint is contested, but the paint was sanded off | | | | horrendous crashes. One such example is in 2008 |
| and the car came down to the 750 kg weight. The | | | | during the qualifying laps Michael McDowell hit some |
| Silver Arrow went on to win several competitions | | | | dry oil from a previous accident and ran into the |
| that decade and earned a name for itself in a field of | | | | SAFER-barrier and rolled and flipped several times. |
| cars with vibrant paint jobs that resembled a | | | | After the crash that left his car completed |
| peacock competitions, each racer had to have a | | | | decimated, McDowell was able to crawl from the |
| more vibrant color to one-up the next racer. | | | | crash and walk away with only minor injuries. |
| More important to the racing sport has been the | | | | Besides the advancement of the personal protection |
| advent of safety equipment. The development of | | | | of the driver, which is the end game goal of all |
| the equipment has usually followed technological | | | | safety equipment, certain developments have made |
| development and tragedies. For example, after the | | | | it so the car is less likely to be destroyed. The most |
| 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt on the last lap of a | | | | obvious is the application of a restrictor plate to the |
| Daytona race did the National Association for Stock | | | | air intake which prevents the car from exceeding |
| Car Auto Racing revisit the massive G-Force | | | | certain speeds. One of the less obvious pieces of |
| deceleration that the driver experiences when they | | | | racing equipment was the invention of the roof flaps |
| crash. The technology for the SAFER-barriers existed | | | | which are recessed during normal use. These flaps |
| prior to this development, and was proposed by | | | | attempt to counteract the inverted air foiling that |
| Smokey Yunik in the 1970s. However, because of | | | | takes place when a car becomes airborne. The |
| the cost and the lack of public interest in the | | | | aerodynamics of the NASCAR vehicles force |
| movement, NASCAR didn't move to install the | | | | downward pressure when they are driving normally |
| barriers until after Earnhardt's tragedy. Although | | | | on the road, however when the car become airborne |
| perhaps the most visible, this was by far the only | | | | and it can easily flip and the downward pressure |
| development since the early days of the sport. | | | | becomes upward pressure making the car fly for a |
| Much of the racing equipment has been modified | | | | time. The roof flaps were invented to deploy when |
| from the original days of the sport. The drivers have | | | | the airfoil is inverted. These flaps create enough drag |
| received cages and elaborate seats made from | | | | to minimize the potential for the car to create |
| carbon fiber which can absorb and disperse more | | | | vertical lift, instead the car will simply roll. The roll is |
| force that the previous aluminum seats. They're also | | | | preferable to the gaining altitude away from the |
| lighter weight, which is a serious consideration when | | | | track because the roll cage absorbs and mitigates |
| you are planning on achieving speeds upwards of 200 | | | | impacts better than the sudden impact of hitting the |
| miles per hour. The seats have been developed to | | | | pavement after getting 15 feet of air at 150 miles |
| surround the driver, especially around the rig cage | | | | per hour. |
| where sudden impacts can be fatal. The Head and | | | | The safety standards of the modern NASCAR |
| Neck Shoulder device has removed the potential to | | | | organization have been due to developments that |
| snap your neck from sudden deceleration by | | | | followed the scientific advancements in their |
| stabilizing the neck with the rest of the seat. The | | | | respective fields as well as tragic racing fatalities that |
| helmet is tethered on either side to the back of the | | | | spurred their implementation. The technological |
| shoulder harness which looks slightly similar to a back | | | | development in the fields of aerodynamics and |
| plate that rises out of a football player's pads. The | | | | structural engineering has permitted the well watched |
| shoulder harnesses also help central torso impacts to | | | | racing sport to become safer over the years. |