Smith wants mandated catch fences
CONCORD, N.C. -- The chairman of Speedway Motorsports says NASCAR should mandate a standard catch-fence system for all sanctioned tracks following the recent crash at Talladega Superspeedway.
He already has begun construction on a new system at New Hampshire Motor Speedway that will be in place when the Sprint Cup series goes there next month.
"Let's fix it because the sport is at risk," Bruton Smith said on Monday at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "Cables [that provide strength to the fence] are just like fishing lines. You have a certain test lines. Cables can be like a quarter inch and have a 90,000 PSI [pounds per square inch].
"That's the things we need to do at all these speedways to make sure we have the strongest there is."
Smith said he began changing the fences at New Hampshire before Carl Edwards' car went flying into the catch fence at Talladega and injured seven spectators.
"It needed to be replaced. It was not adequate," he said.
Smith replaced the catch fences at LMS in 1999 after debris from an IRL car flew into the stands and killed three people. He raised the height from just over 15 feet to 21 feet with a six-foot hangover.
The top of the catch fence at Talladega was 14 feet from the track.
Smith said many of the catch fences are outdated, noting the Talladega fence was installed in 1978.
"I prefer to use welded wire," he said. "We should never, ever use any of this wire you see around here you build fences out of. You need a welded wire which is 10 times stronger than a chain length fence.
"There's no rule on how many cables you put. You could put cables say every six inches or every 12 inches. Cable is not necessarily the answer to what we're answer. You've got to do your homework and make sure you have the tensile strength in those cables."
Smith takes credit for getting Daytona International Speedway to put in new fences in the late '70s, recalling a conversation he had with NASCAR former chairman Bill France Jr.
"The fence at Daytona was just like Talladega," Smith said. "I said, 'Bill, this fence is terrible.' He said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'I could run right through it. It's hog wire.' He listened, then changed the fence."
Talladega officials still have not revealed whether the injured fans were struck by pieces of the car or the fence.
"We look at the fence frequently and inspect it thoroughly once a year. We also check the cable systems each year," said Talladega Superspeedway president Rick Humphrey. "We are satisfied the fence and the cabling did its job here last Sunday and we are still reviewing what, if any, changes we will make to our fencing prior to the November 1 AMP Energy 500. We feel that is too premature to make a decision only one week from when the incident took place and will therefore continue to review before we come to a final conclusion."
David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.
