On April 4, rookie NASCAR driver Michael McDowell lost control of his No. 00 stock car and slammed into the outside wall of Texas Motor Speedway.
He was going more than 160 mph. His vehicle rolled eight times.
Half a minute later, McDowell walked away from the crash with no injuries except for a slight limp. He went on to participate in a race the following Sunday.
McDowell may owe his life to the revolutionary safety system surrounding the track at Texas Motor Speedway. The Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier was developed at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s college of engineering.
Dean Sicking, a UNL professor of civil engineering and leader of the team that developed the barrier, said the crash was another demonstration of the SAFER barrier’s effectiveness.
“It did its job,” Sicking said. “We’ve had a number of these over the years, real serious hits where the drivers were able to walk away.”
The SAFER barrier, which debuted last year at the start of the NASCAR season, turns every crash into two separate collisions. This lessens the severity of each wreck by extending the time of impact.
The barrier is made of five steel tubes stacked on top of one another and welded together. Behind the wall of tubes is a layer of insulating foam. Upon impact, the wall recedes into the foam to absorb the energy from the crash.
Because the pipes are welded together, the barrier won’t wrap around a vehicle that slams into it. The barrier’s design also prevents the damaged car from bouncing back onto the track.
SAFER barriers are placed in front of the concrete retaining walls installed at most NASCAR raceways.
Between six and eight iterations of the SAFER barrier were developed before a final design was settled upon, said Jim Holloway, MRSF facility operations manager.
The tubes were made from plastic in some of the early prototypes, and other designs used cables as energy absorbing mechanisms. A few changes were as small as tweaking the spacing and thickness of the foam cartridges, Holloway said.
“It’s absolutely one of the most successful safety products in the history of motor sports,” Holloway said of the finished product. “It’s awesome.”