Elliott Sadler Lucky To Be Alive After Pocono Crash Sunday

Elliott Sadler crashed unbelievably hard into an inner retaining wall Sunday at Pocono.  He is lucky to be alive, or at least not to be severely injured.  There is no reason that retaining wall should be there the way it is.  Should be safer barriers all the way around the track, and they should rip up most of the grass on the back stretch and replace it with pavement, like they have at Talladega.  When race cars go into and through the grass at 190 mph, there is no stopping them. 

I was at Watkins Glen in 1991 when J.D. McDuffie died in a similar crash.  He was going down the back stretch, lost control, got into the grass, and ran head first into a tire and dirt retaining wall.  When I saw the Elliott Sadler crash Sunday, my thoughts went back to that sad day at Watkins Glen, when they brought J.D.'s car back to the pits on a hauler, all covered, signifying J.D. had died in the crash.  Geoff Bodine also had a hard crash at Watkins in the same spot J.D. hit, saying it was one of the hardest crashes he was ever in.

Thank God Elliott was able to crawl out of the car, and walk away from the accident.  It is a credit to the safety of the NASCAR cars.  Let's hope we don't have to watch another vicious accident like the one Sunday.