CARS SAFER NOW : HIGHER SPEEDS POSE DANGER.

Byline: Associated Press 

Anybody who watches Winston Cup races has seen frightening, breathtaking crashes.

Fans sit in stunned silence while multicolored, 3,400-pound cars flip wildly, barrel-roll, crash into concrete walls and steel fencing, and spew pieces of sheet metal and thick, black smoke.

Since NASCAR was founded in 1949, 26 Winston Cup drivers have been killed in crashes in testing, practice, qualifying and races.

Considering the hundreds of accidents during that period, the toll could have been much worse had NASCAR, car builders and teams not worked constantly to improve safety.

Today's cars bear only an outward similarity to those sold at dealerships. Race cars have tube-frame chassis and steel roll cages that form a protective cocoon around the driver. It becomes a Ford, Chevy or Pontiac depending on the shape of the sheet metal hung on the frame.

After watching drivers walk away from crashes, few can doubt that the cars do protect them. But it's impossible to guarantee safety as speeds increase and competition gets tougher.

A recent spate of accidents has left a long list of injuries in its wake.

Former series champion Bill Elliott missed seven races after breaking a leg at Talladega last April.

A crash in July at Talladega left seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt with a broken sternum and collarbone, knocking him out of contention for the season title.

Terry Labonte won the 1996 championship despite breaking his hand in a crash before the penultimate race in Phoenix.

Crashes this year have left Ricky Craven with a couple of fractured ribs and a broken shoulder blade, and Steve Grissom and Greg Sacks hobbling with broken feet.

``Everybody who wrecks now is driving hurt the next week,'' said three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip. ``He's got a broken rib or broken collarbone or foot or something broken. These things hit the wall harder than they ever have before.

``You look at the cars today, the reason they're faster than they were back when I started is because they're smaller,'' said Waltrip, in his 25th year of Winston Cup racing.

``Back in the old days, we had what we called the crush factor,'' he continued. ``What would happen to a car if it would hit the wall? How far would it crush before it got into where it would hurt anything? That was driver's side and passenger's side. Today, on the driver's side, there is no crush factor. You are there. When you get slammed up into the wall on the driver's side, you have paid the price.''

Jeff Gordon, who at 25 is exactly half Waltrip's age, is the fastest-rising star in NASCAR, having already won a championship and 23 races. And he says he feels safe in his cars.

``I know from experience that hitting walls and being in some bad-looking accidents, the ones that hurt you are the ones where the cars stop and take a bad impact,'' Gordon said. ``Some of these cars flipping and tearing a lot of pieces off the cars look real dramatic, but if you hit something with the front of the car or the rear of the car, usually that takes up a lot of the impact.

``When you hit side-to-side with the door bars square up against the wall or something like that, that's usually when your body has to give and not the car anymore. Those are usually the ones that really hurt,'' he said.

While each team has different equipment and budgets vary, the driver is ultimately responsible for making sure his car is safe, Gordon said.

``I go and sit in every new car and get fitted in that car and make sure everything is comfortable and out of reach and as safe as it can possibly be,'' he said.

Dale Jarrett, who drove several races last year with cracked ribs, says today's cars can trick drivers.

``It's almost like we get a false sense of security, that nothing is going to happen to us when we get in these cars because we have the latest and the best stuff that there is out there for safety,'' Jarrett said.

``Maybe everybody doesn't have the same thing, but it's up to the driver and the crews to make sure that you have the very best stuff. You have to pay attention to that. Still, I think things have come a long way in the last 10 years.''

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