NASCAR fans injured at Daytona Speedway tonight!

I just finished watching the Pepsi 400 and was shocked by what they just announced! Apparently towards the end of the race, a hood from one of the cars flew off & landed into the fans! They didn't say a thing about it during the race, but afterward they were showing a woman being taken away on stretchers. How scary! Could you imagine what kind of damage that could have done to someone? They haven't announced (on TV anyway) how many people or how bad people were hurt. Man...that could have easily taken someones head off!
Here's the article:

R. Gordon's hood flies into stands at Daytona
By Lee Montgomery, Turner Sports Interactive
July 5, 2003
11:17 PM EDT (0317 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The hood from the damaged car of Robby Gordon came off his car and flew into the frontstretch grandstands at Daytona International Speedway late in the Pepsi 400, injuring one fan, according to spectators.

Track and NASCAR officials said immediately after the race they were aware of the hood going into the stands but did not have any other information.

Gordon's car sat in the garage area after the race under a car cover. Its hood, obviously, was not there. NASCAR officials stood next to the car.

That is so scary, I hope everyone is ok.

It was freaky watching the replay of the hood spinning into the fans! Those cars are running close to 185 mph so you can imagine how fast that hood was flying. Hope that gal is ok and hopefully no one else was injured.

Scary

I'll have to tell Bill about that, in the morning. I know that he watched that race but, I don't pay much attention.

A couple of years ago, a hood went flying into the crowd killed somebody. There was a big hue and cry about making the fences higher but nothing ever came of it.

I wasn't able to watch the race yesterday, but I recorded it on Tivo - I'll have to watch this afternoon sometime. That is so scary! It wasn't that long ago that someone's tire (Ryan Newman's maybe?) went flying off their car and up towards the stands, although it didn't actually hit anyone. Shortly thereafter they discussed implementing a safety strap for the tires... I wouldn't be at all surprised if they decided to implement a safety strap for the hood too. NASCAR is generally all about safety...

I really hope that lady is all right!!!

Jin, I thought there already were safety tethers on the hoods and tires??? I know there are some on one set of tires, but I don't remember whether it was the front or back tires. Hubby just told me that Robby Gordon's car is being held and guarded by NASCAR officials, so something is going on with that. They just have so much momentum going at Daytona and Talledega that those cars can get ripped apart pretty easily. The roof flaps don't do much to keep them from flipping at those two tracks, especially Daytona for some reason.

I hope that poor lady is ok. I bet the driver feels terrible, even though it is not his fault. Unfortunately, accidents happen in spite of all the safety measures. I was checking TCS last night and missed the end of the race.

I'm betting that there is some kind of strap or something holding the hood on, but with this incident Robby Gordon was in a huge accident early in the race. Once he got back on the track and raced many laps, the hood just flew off the hard like a discus. Maybe during that accident, it damaged what ever was supposed to hold it on & it finally just gave away.

I do think they need to raise the cage guard around the tracks. I've been the Michigan Speedway and it does seem rather low...but I was sitting in the middle of the stands.

As much as NASCAR is trying to make safety improvements for their drivers and crews, I do think they need to spend a little more time improving the safety of the fans. With out the fans, there wouldn't be NASCAR at all. IMO

If anyone wants to see the video clip from this, you can go to www.nascar.com
There's a link on the front page "R.Gordon's hood flies into Stands" and it will play the video.
Just thought I'd share in case if someone wanted to see it!