[SevenGrain]

According to Brian Barnhardt, Robbie's initial impact when the back end of the car, the gearbox, hit the wall was 40 g's. When the right front slid in and slapped in, he spiked to a 72.7.

Compare this to Salazar's crash at the Speedway before the soft wall was installed at 109 g's. The difference is that Salazar's season is over and McGehee will likely be cleared to drive within a week or so.

The SAFER wall certainly helped, but the issue of back injury still needs to be addressed. When the IRL cars crash, they nearly always hit the wall gearbox first. Perhaps there should be a deformable structure around the back of the car to absorb the energy. The back of the car is just too rigid.

This is the problem that NASCAR has had, the chassis have become to rigid and don't absord the energy from the impact. With both the car and the wall a solid structure, the driver's body is left to absord the impact. And NASCAR has lost some drivers recently as we are all painfully aware. Mandating the HANS device to protect the vulnerable upper spine and neck is a step in the right direction, and "soft" walls are a great idea that we will surely see installed an many other tracks, but the car is still the most important piece of the puzzle.

Street cars have "crumple zones" designed to absorb impact, CART chassis "shed parts" to dissapate energy and, for some reason, they don't have the tendancy to "backend" the wall as ferociously at it's IRL counterpart.

I don't know the answer, but I do know that I don't want to see another fine driver put on the shelf for the rest of the season, or have to cope with life in a wheelchair.