Scary. That’s the only word that comes to mind when looking at what happened at Talladega between Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece. NASCAR, over the years, has been taking big strides when it comes to driver safety and making their racecars safer and safer. But when Preece T-boned Larson at Talladega a few weeks ago, what was left of Larson’s car rang the alarm bells in everyone’s minds considering the roll cage was left in bad shape.
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However, as we’ve seen in the past and especially in recent memory, NASCAR quickly got on the important task at hand and began working on improving the safety of the Next Gen car even more, which is exactly what they did.
The Next Gen car was announced to be getting some significant safety updates, which will come into play next month when the drivers go back to Atlanta.
However, when asked about his opinion on the new safety updates, Larson, who was, unfortunately, a key figure in what led to this change, didn’t have much of an opinion, while having one at the same time.
NASCAR announces significant safety updates to the Next Gen car following the crash involving the Nos. 5 and 41 cars at Talladega.
These changes are set to debut at Atlanta Motor Speedway. pic.twitter.com/bPoOGMRSGb
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 8, 2023
Kyle Larson happy to see NASCAR move toward more safety with new updates
Ahead of the weekend in Sonoma, Larson was asked about his thoughts on NASCAR introducing new safety upgrades after his horror wreck. In his response, the Hendrick Motorsports driver chose to steer clear of the technical aspects of the subject.
He instead decided to applaud the swift and necessary response by the governing body.
“Yeah, I mean not an engineer, so I don’t know. I can’t look at it and really give you an opinion on how well they did with the changes or whatnot. But I am very happy that me being in that wreck at Talladega and seeing how close it got to being really bad – seeing them go straight into action, and compile data and make quick moves on improving the safety, it was something I was happy to see,” Larson said.
“I think it’s a great thing, great for them to move on quickly.”
Kyle Larson said he was happy that NASCAR moved quickly to investigate and address concerns over his wreck with Ryan Preece at Talladega. NASCAR is instituting several changes to the car effective July 9 at Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/NAMPsxUr3k
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 10, 2023
Larson had claimed the Talladega incident was “unsettling”
Speaking after the race at Talladega late in April, Kyle Larson pointed to the ‘what could’ve been’ part of his late wreck with Ryan Preece. The #5 driver claimed that it was pretty clear how certain things could have gotten to him in the car or as he wondered, what could’ve happened if there was a second impact.
Having said that, Larson cleared that he wasn’t knocking NASCAR. “They’ve worked really hard with this car to make it safer. I’ve been very thankful they took both my car and Preece’s car afterward to dive in deeper into it and see how they can make it safer yet,” he clarified as per AP News.
Thankfully, it took them less than ten weeks to respond with the new safety upgrades, something which will surely instill a boost of confidence among drivers and fans when it comes to the Next Gen car.
