Fences mended, healing continues

— Fans feeling unsafe after Saturday’s finish-line crash at Daytona International Speedway were able to change seats for NASCAR’s biggest race.

Track President Joie Chitwood said Sunday that workers successfully repaired a section of fence - 54 feet wide and 22 feet high - that was shredded Saturday when Kyle Larson’s car went airborne on the final lap of a Nationwide race and crashed through the barrier that separates cars from fans. Large pieces of debris, including a tire, sprayed into the upper and lower section of the stands.

The crash injured more than 30 people.

Halifax Health spokesman Byron Cogdell said seven people with crash-related injuries remained hospitalized Sunday in Daytona Beach in stable condition. The six people brought to a different Halifax hospital in Port Orange with crash-related injuries had all been discharged by Sunday morning, Cogdell said.

A spokesman at Florida Memorial Medical Center would not release information Sunday on the patients brought to that hospital.

Chitwood said Saturday’s incident could prompt a redesign that might include sturdier fences or stands further away from on-track action.

The 12-car crash began as the front-runners approached the checkered flag. Leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski for the win, triggering a pileup that could have been much worse.

Ambulance sirens could be heard wailing behind the grandstands at a time the race winner would typically be doing celebratory burnouts.

In 1987, Bobby Allison’s car lifted off the track at Talladega while running over 200 mph, careening into the steel-cable fence and scattering debris into the crowd. That crash led to the use of horsepower-sapping restrictor plates at Talladega and its sister track in Daytona, NASCAR’s fastest layouts.

Sports, Pages 17 on 02/25/2013

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