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RacerX, the answer is no. This has been discussed at length in this forum before. I think that if the cars hit the wall a glancing blow at almost the same direction as the smooth concrete wall, the impact would not be that severe. Unfortunately, for some reason Dale swerved left towards the infield and then the car snapped back on the opposite lock towards the wall, hitting the wall at an angle of about 30 degrees (from my estimate, and I could be wrong). This would have generated tremendous deceleration as well as a sudden change in direction back to the direction of the track. Unless you have about 3 or 4 metres of rubber, there would not be sufficient energy absorption to minimise such an impact. The rubber would be countr productive in a glancing blow because it would catch the car and send it into a spin or even flip the car in front of all those behind. Styrofoam is so light it would not absorb any energy at all on impact.
However, I was just thinking,could the inside of the car be lined with something to minimise the sudden snapping motion of the body on impact? as well as to absorb the impact of the driver moving forward??
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