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If you watch Dale's crash in slo-mo & time the impact, you'll see that his actual closing speed with the wall was only about 30 MPH, pretty much the same as has repetedly been recorded by the Ford black box fitted to CART & IRL cars. That is a very severe speed to hit a stationary object, but also very survivable IF the right crumple zones are built into the car.
Dale's problem seems to have been an offshoot to the fact that stock car frames have been designed in recent years a lot stiffer than before. In his crash, the frame was the first thing of any structure that hit the wall - the bodywork ahead of the frame did nothing to decelerate the car before the very unforgiving frame came in contact. Note how little the frame crushed and compare it to similar crashes of years past. Because of that, the deceleration was damned near instantanious, rather than gradual as it would have been it a decent crush box had been installed in the empty space within the nose ahead of the frame.
At the point that the frame stopped crushing, Dale was probably still doing 30 MPH relative to the wall, with only the steering wheel and his harness available to decelerate him. The reports that he suffered massive chest injuries seem to support that scenario. He would have literally been bounced backwards off of the wheel at nearly the same speed with which he hit it, causing severe whiplash, and in turn, the basal skull fractures.
Put bluntly, he didn't have a prayer of surviving that crash, even had he been wearing a HANS device. Even a carbon chest plate may not have spread the loads enough to prevent crushing his chest.
Maybe now NASCAR will finally pay attention to crush structures. Their insane stubbornness of refusing to mandate crumple zones like darn near every other pro racing series not only lost them a driving legend, but also their biggest cash cow. Maybe the money factor will finally cause them to wake up.
Sorry if that sounds like a cruel thing to say, but you may not know NASCAR's priorities the way I do.
Dale will be missed for many years to come.
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