The drive down to Daytona just about killed me.
Cruising toward Florida on Interstate-95, a construction
zone sprung up suddenly somewhere in South Carolina or
Georgia. It was accompanied by a left-lane closure and merge
sign, which the car in the right lane failed to see.
As I put on my turn signal and drifted into the right lane,
the other car tried to pass a truck, squeezing me out of the
rapidly ending stretch of pavement.
I honked once, accelerated onto the shoulder and made the
pass - just missing the first orange construction barrel.
The surge of adrenaline was exactly the kind of thrill
NASCAR fans get when they act like their favorite drivers on
the highway. But race car drivers say the comparisons between
racing and interstate driving are few.
"Both are tough for different reasons," NASCAR driver Eric
McClure said. "On the track, you have a lot of people who want
to be Richard Petty. On the highway, you have a lot of people
who think they already are Richard Petty."
McClure is one of the drivers who employs the Williams
Company, a public relations firm featuring media ace Chip
Williams.
Williams asked several of his clients to address the
traffic vs. racing question after two Mexican drivers missed a
Mexico City news conference leading up to last Saturday's
Busch Series race in that country. The reason? They were
caught in traffic.
It's something fans often wonder about - how do NASCAR
drivers fare off the track? Do they speed? Do they get in
accidents?
The ultimate irony, obviously, would be the race car driver
who gets injured or killed in a street vehicle.
There's a reason that rarely happens - race car drivers are
experts at avoiding wrecks.
"Nobody is perfect, but you see a whole lot fewer mistakes
on the race track than you do the interstate," said
Chris Festa, who drives
in the Infiniti Pro Series. "If somebody does make a mistake
on the race track, the other drivers are usually pretty good
at avoiding it - keeping that one mistake from being a much
bigger mess.
It seems hard to believe, but Festa said he feels safer
from accidents on a race track than a highway like I-95.
"I'd say there are a lot more chances to have a wreck if
you are driving down a public road than on the race track," he
said. "On the race track, though, the consequences of mistakes
are a whole lot more severe."
Auto accident fatalities have held relatively steady over
the past 10 years. According to the National Highways Traffic
Safety Administration, 36,254 people were killed in vehicle
crashes in 1994. Only a small increase to 38,252 fatalities
were reported in 2003, the most recent data.
Meanwhile, race track safety has continued to improve
dramatically, especially in NASCAR. The addition of the SAFER
barriers or "soft walls" at every track has prevented
countless injuries or deaths.
Last year, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary
Norman Mineta attended a NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Richmond,
examining the SAFER barriers and suggesting they could someday
be used on highways.
"The main difference I have seen is the 'awareness
factor,'" Infiniti Pro Series driver Travis Gregg said. "Race
car drivers know who is around them and can usually tell you
who else is near, whether they can see them or not. Too many
people driving passenger cars are under the constant
assumption they are the only car on the road."
Of course, as Busch Series driver Stanton Barrett pointed
out, the biggest difference is the amount of people watching.
"You mess up on the highway, and there are three witnesses
and a state trooper to figure it all out, and your insurance
company to answer to," he said. "Make a mistake on the race
track, and 100,000 people in the grandstands and a million or
so more watching on television will tell you how you could
have avoided the whole thing."