[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by jimclark

Oooopppss on the '83.

Regarding the cause....a friend and I were at a bar shooting pool and we asked for a TV to be turned to ESPN (i think it was) for their daily 1/2 hour "Month of May" daily update of activities at Indy. That's when we found out and I caught it immediately.

I explained to my buddy that as Gordon corrected for the rear coming around on him and the car came back to straight ahead, the ground effects kicked back in and grabbed the (now, still) right turned front wheels which turned the car towards the wall. Poor smiley never had a chance to un-correct in time. That was part of the reason the skirts were banned the following year. Without them, the turn to the right wouldn't have been as violent and he mighta been able to lessen the angle of impact to a more glancing, rather than head on, blow.
Sure enuff, right after I was finished, one of the announcers (I don't remember who) explained the same.

That's the first I've heard of that explanation. If the skirts weren't working properly and therefore not enough downforce was being generated, that could explain why the car was so loose.