One of the scariest wrecks in racing this year occurred a little more than a week ago, when Stewart Friesen was involved in a horrific crash. Friesen suffered a broken pelvis and a fractured right leg.
It was the kind of crash that gets everyone in the sport’s attention. It could have been much, much worse.
“This is just an absolutely horrifying wreck right here,” Kevin Harvick said on the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast. “You see him just hit the end of that wall and then hit by cars and fires. Just glad that he’s not in worse condition than he is. It was a tough couple weeks for dirt racing with everything that happened at Eldora with the sprint cars. And then you have Friesen’s wreck right here. So glad everybody’s still here.”
Stewart Friesen is now recovering. His wife has posted multiple updates, and he’s since been transferred to a hospital in New York. He’ll have to undergo multiple surgeries.
In the meantime, folks like Harvick are using the wreck as a reminder of the importance of the work NASCAR does in ensuring driver safety. Harvick spotlighted it on his podcast.
“These series don’t have the investigations and things, and that’s one thing NASCAR does a really good job at, is making sure they understand each wreck,” Harvick said. “Making sure that they look at all the equipment. They hold the people accountable to wear their equipment right, to get their headrests right. That doesn’t happen in the short track world. Some of the stuff you see is pretty scary.”
Stewart Friesen’s wreck may well be the warning call to some of the smaller series to take safety a little more seriously. No one wants to have blood on their hands.
But it goes beyond just the racing organizations themselves policing things. Team owners and crew chiefs also need to keep their guys on point.
“And that’s one thing I stress to all of our young guys and just people in general that just get a little lax about it from the safety side,” Harvick said. “You’re not preparing for every time you get in. You’re preparing for that moment like we just saw with Stewart Friesen.
“So it’s super important that all that stuff is right and you evolve with the safety aspect of it. That’s the difference between weekly racing and Cup, Xfinity, Truck racing … that NASCAR holds you accountable. Not so much the case on stuff like this.”
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