Thank NASCAR for the COT…

There but for the grace of God and NASCAR went Martin Truex Jr.

The scariest moment of Martinsville’s otherwise excellent Goody’s Fast Relief 500 Truex Jr. and a hung throttle. It also involved Kasey Kahne in a big way, as the Clam Prince used him as a buffer on his way to the wall. There wasn’t much choice,as a hung throttle means you go where you’re pointed until it either breaks loose or you stop—suddenly.

Boy, did he stop suddenly. The impact shoved the front end of his NAPA Toyota hard to the right…well, what was left of it,anyway. Everything in front of the firewall was jammed solid, and that car is even now being recycled into another racer…orrazor blades, whichever is more cost-efficient.

Truex stated plainly that had it not been for soft walls and the HANS device, he would be in the same situation. The angle ofthe crash and, likely, the cause, was the same as those which claimed Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr.

Martinsville is flatter than a presidential approval poll, and so is New Hampshire. Severe angles to the wall contributed tothe fatal accidents of Petty and Irwin, and it was true in this case as well.

You can make the case that, by hooking Kahne’s left rear quarter, it saved Truex from what could have been a much worse accident than you might anticipate at a track like Martinsville.

Here’s a hearty thank-you to NASCAR for the COT and the HANS…we’d likely see Truex in the crash house for months or worse ifthey hadn’t been in place.

Truex has had, according to reports, problems with the throttle sticking before. He eschewed the ride to the Infield CareCenter at Martinsville in favor of a walk to his pit box, where he had words with crew chief Pat Tryson before heading to see the docs.

Hung throttles were fixed in the aftermath of Petty and Irwin, and we haven’t had much in the way of incidents since then.But as the teams are twisting the innards of today’s engines that much more these days, we’re likely to see some pop up.

Luckily, the COT is made of pretty stern stuff, and so are the soft walls. Even though Truex took a bite out of Turn 3 when he hit it, it was a 25-minute repair job to the wall and then they were back to the beating and banging.

One thing we didn’t see was a whole lot of root-hog during the race. Yeah, they moved people from time to time, but moving isn’t shoving.

You won’t see much of that this weekend at Texas, though. Tapping someone on a crooked part of the track is a big no-no.

Looking forward to the first night race at Texas!

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