Do you think we would have COTs if Earnhardt did not die?

Question

All the safety thought that came after it though, would safety still be as important as it is today?

Answer 1

i think we would i mean dale died almost 6 yrs ago and then they never said anything about a new car then they didnt start till early last year an late 2006

Answer 2

Yes I do. Nascar is a ever evolving sport. Nascar is probably way ahead on doing R&D on another type car that will be safer than the COT they drive now. At the time Dale Sr(RIP) unfortunate death Nascar believed they had the safest car out there. They will never be able to guarantee you will live through anything(wrecks). Leys just hope and pray that it doesnt.

Answer 3

Yes I do. The car of tomorrow was developed not just to improve safety but also to level the playing field between the car makes.

Answer 4

Yes, there were several serious injuries with the old car that possibly would not have happened in the COT.

There were safety factors built into the old cars but the main objective was aerodynamics in order to develop more speed.

In the COT the sides of the car have been bumped out and the driver moved several inches closer to the centerline of the car.  The windshield is more upright and the cars is "boxy" compared to the old ones.

Now, if you had asked about the HANS device; that is an entirely different story.  Earnhardt died, in part, because part of his body harness failed and allowed his body to slam forward and his head snapped forward and basically popped his head off of the top of his spine.  Had he been wearing the HANS device this would not have happened and he would probably still be racing today.

Answer 5

yes, but it probably accelerated the evolution of a safer car. It would've also happened if it happened to another driver. It just takes the stimulation of the mind of an "inventor".

Answer 6

Believe it or not, the COT was being developed before Sr's death.  It was just in some really quite stages.  When NA$CAR brought on Robin Pemberton, little by little it started coming out.  But the purpose of the COT originally was for safety and also finding ways to give drivers more throttle response on super speedways.

So yes, I do believe that we would still have it, but I dont thing that the wing would be on it and a spoiler would be and I also think that it would just be getting close to hitting the tracks, but not on the tracks yet.

Just an added knowledge, the COT started being deveolped in 1999 to 2000.  Dales death only triggered the acceleration of the project.

TOM G - the best info I could find for you is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_of_tomo...

"On January 11, 2006, NASCAR announced a universal car named the "Car of Tomorrow" (or "CoT" for short) after a seven-year design program sparked mainly due to the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr., one of the sport's drivers, in a final lap crash during the 2001 Daytona 500.[2] The then-current cars were based on Holman Moody's 1966 Ford Fairlane.[3] The primary design considerations were "safety innovations, performance and competition, and cost efficiency for teams."[4]

Jan 06 was only a little shy of 5 years since Sr's death.  The car was already almost 2 years into development that time.

Another good source is www.jayski.com, here is a link to every article about the COT, the earliest one dates to 2004

http://www.jayski.com/teams/car-future.h...

If you'll notice the first article it says, "The fatal crashes in 2000 of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin in New Hampshire and Tony Roper in Texas led NASCAR to reach out to the best engineers it could find, and the Dale Earnhardt accident threw the project into high gear."

My personal sources say that the talking stages were well before the deaths of Adam and Kenny.

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

I would like to think so -Even before Ernie Ervin crash in the 90's.

but the progress was slow, even tho some one, even me gives nascar a cussing every week, they do care about their drivers and try to keep the playing field pretty even,,,

  however I do believe that Dale's Death accelerated

the safety program/ and to everyone that don't like the c.o.t.

the dang thing is pretty safe.

Answer 8

YEAH !!! We'd have it !! Change is inevitable in any sport !!

Even a strikezone in baseball, has changed over the years.

I'm sure Dale Sr. was thought about though, while these changes were in the making !  All the way back to Fireball Roberts I'm sure ?

Answer 9

It seems like there is an article about that in NASCAR.com's website. It should be all included in the investigation they did after the accident. I remember reading it. Yes they were developing safetywise before Dale Sr's wreck. The neck restraint device was recommended before he died but not required. Sr's death just brought the COT development around quicker.

I believe it may have started out as an idea for a UniTemplate car for all teams to be more equal because one manufacturer complained that the other manufactuer had an unfair advantage.

Answer 10

Yes we would have, and the first 4 head and neck restraints were first worn in Feb, 2002, the beginning of the race season, this was a year after Dale Sr passed from the wreck.

Rusty Wallace

Jeff Gordon

Mark Martin

Ward Burton

these were the original first four to wear them...........

and as the season progressed, 2 more cars used them, and as the years have passed, they are all using them...

wish they had been around the day Dale crashed, maybe he would still be around.......

Answer 11

Definitely not!  His accident took over six months of intensive investigation to determine every potential aspect and then by trial and error the engineers came up with not only the structured framework and foam padding as well as moving the drivers seat over towards the center a designing the "Golden Halo" over the drivers head.  All of this being done to the car as well as most all Track Owners we required to comply with major re-construction of retaining walls and the shape of the fence protecting the spectators along with strict rules over the entry into and out of the pit areas.  The constant communication network that NASCAR uses to converse with the Crew Chiefs when their respective drivers are not conforming to rules which have been laid out for them to circumvent major accidents as well as tone down hostility events that causes tempers to flare and drivers to re-act in a dangerous manner.

Answer 12

they would probably still be developing it  but it would have been on the drawing board

Answer 13

Probably not.  We lost a lot of drivers - Adam Petty, Tony Roper, Kenny Irwin, John Nemechek - among others.  Not much was done after their deaths.  I believe that the window net was modified after John's death.

Unfortunately, it took the death of NASCAR'S biggest star to make people sit up and notice.

Answer 14

I think it would have eventually came about. The death of Dale just escalated the time frame.

Answer 15

Hmmm...I think it would have come about still, but just not as soon as it did. If I recall correctly in 2007 they said it was 7 years in development which would have had that start in 2000, 1 year before #3 ran his last race so I think Dale's death only accelerated its debut, not brought it about in the 1st place.