Daytona Pledges Greater Safety Measures

Kyle Busch crashes, forces Speedway to make big changes

NASCAR driver Kyle Busch has a compound fracture of his lower right leg and a fractured left foot. Obviously, he won't be driving in Sunday's Daytona 500.

Busch suffered the injuries in a crash on Saturday during a Xfinity Series race in Daytona. He made contact with another car, his brakes locked up and he slammed head-first in to the infield wall.

However, his injuries could have been much less severe if Daytona International Speedway had learned its lesson from 2001.

Dale Earnhardt died in a crash on that track 14 years ago this week. Since then, NASCAR has urged tracks to install the SAFER barriers at its tracks. Daytona has the life-saving, and quite expensive, barriers on its outside walls, but inexplicably not on the infield walls.

How a track that was the site of the death of one of the most beloved figures in racing history has not, in 14 years, taken EVERY SAFETY PRECAUTION IMAGINABLE, is beyond me.

After Busch's crash on Saturday, Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood, who has held the spot since 2010, took responsibility and said all that is about to change.

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