2012 Eric McClure hard crash @ Talladega (extended version)

26 cars on the lead lap until the final laps, I think Kevin Harvick is trying to prevent that from happening because he is pushing Nemechek

hard

and not letting the 54 get back in front of him, yeah look at that restart and i mean long before they got to the line harvick was glued to the rear bumper that 87. so now kyle bush's hopes lie with brad keselowski and his ability to push well, he's getting a good push from him, oh, The problem is that Harvick is nearby, oh, they turned us around in the back of the 43. How many, oh?

What a cruel accident! Eric McClure's

crash

that started at the front of the field jockeying for position to compete for the win ends with some heavily damaged cars scattered around turn three. Taylormalson, Eric McClure's brutal blow. There, yes, it was Robert Ric

hard

son 23. Kevin. Harvick's car was back there also Harvick was out of his car, there is a net outside, that's what's so frustrating about this race, because you stay all day, you position yourself, you stay out of trouble and you stay out of trouble. intensifies so much with just one hit too. hard for someone you have so many different momentum lines but the holes close so quickly no one is willing to give any when it's so close to the end seven cars rejoin the race you saw brad keselowski's car sitting in the pit lane drawing attention robert richardson says Look how hard it was for him, look at the damage on the right front, it's okay, he didn't jump, although it takes a little time to get your wits about you and when you hit something like that, yeah look, they blocked it all and got it back. your feet there your legs your knees the red flag the race right there in the first part of the tribe on the frontstretch is where all the leaders are parked while work continues on the accident scene in turn three, so the red flag is out in the middle of the first attempt on a green-white box ends a multi-car accident in turn three at the end of the back stretch austin dillon's car with damage, but most of the concern remains focused on the car by

eric

mcclure

After the bad accident he suffered on that inside wall, the safety workers there were well trained and doing their job and of course any updates we receive we will pass on as soon as possible to Nascar and these safety teams have done that. tremendous work over the years to get ideas on how to best handle these situations.

They also have an excellent team. They can cut the roof of the car so that if you are injured, they can remove it without causing further injuries to the drivers. They stopped here and continue in the race and no, they have another attempt at green and white chips to decide who is going to win. What's going through your mind while you're sitting there, you just want to finish it now, but when they come back, I'm going to try as hard as they did back then, you know you feel lucky that you were able to achieve it and get to this point, but now it's all over.

Try to be okay, I got it. Up to this point, let's make the most of it. Let's see that Nascar also does a good job. It's very hot now in these race cars. You've been out there in 85 degree temperatures, giving all these drivers some water. There are the eight drivers involved in the accident. All of those drivers walked away from their cars like in the case of Patrick and Keselowski or got off their machines if they couldn't continue, except for Eric McClure's machine, where work is seen continuing as they continue working on that scene. There, in turn number three, we continue to show concern and observe the situation and pay attention.

Andy, you've been a crew chief, you've been a team owner. This from Nascar tells us that Eric McClure has been talking to the doctor. personnel at the accident scene, so it's certainly a rear roof as well, so good news, much better access to Eric now than himself the fact that they would remove the roof is simply to give the safety workers more room to maneuver. and in any type of situation, I mean, he took a hard hit on the inside wall, you would stabilize his spine and his neck to try to get him out of that car and make sure there were no injuries or more injuries in that area, but again, Nascar simply informs us that McClure is talking or has talked to the medical workers there, on shift number three, it's much less risky to get that roof feeling back even though they probably don't know the extent of the injuries. here, but it's much less risky to get any driver out of the car without having to go through that little window and these wind openers are pretty small and we talk all the time about the safety of these new cars, everything that that implies as far as to the Hans device and the shoulder harness, the seat belts, everything that drivers now have inside these cars, but you still have to realize that you are traveling over 170 miles per hour in this racetrack documentary with which you are familiar. medical procedures and all the safety work that goes on in this situation, unfortunately I'm Alan and you explained it very well.

I mean, they usually want to be very, very deliberate and take their time. You want to remove the roof of the car so you can reach the driver and stabilize the neck and spine. It's great to hear the news that you had reported just now that Eric McClure had spoken to Nascar and security personnel at the scene. I spoke to wes ward, the crew chief,

eric

mcclure

, for a moment. ago while walking or heading there and West said that none of the crew heard anything on the radio and they assumed that the radio wires probably broke and broke with that violent impact, so they were very concerned and glad to hear.

That Eric is communicating now again, very, very deliberate, these Nascar security people that you see working in the wagon here train almost once a week, in fact, one of the training sites is here in Talladega, in the back straight, they immediately get cars and cut the roofs. they practice taking the drivers out on a board, tying them up and giving them all the gentle touches they can to get them out of the car so they don't cause harm, part to evaluate them, that's exactly what they're doing now with eric mcclure, okay doctor, thank you and We continue to monitor the scene on the inside of turn three as this race is under the red flag, joining us with a multi-car accident on the backstretch as the race had just restarted for a two-way sprint. green and white laps until final contact in the group sent the cars out of control and there was a big

crash

there involving eric mcclure and that's where the focus is, all the other drivers got out of their cars, kevin harvick finishes of being discharged from the medical center and in these situations the doctor spoke about the The training that the Nascar personnel received sends an advanced team to the city and all care is coordinated through the race track with all the local hospitals and the best trauma units, etc., all coordinate to provide the best possible care for these drivers. in case a situation like this kevin harvick from the medical center with mike mason while we're at it we're checking in at the medical center kevin harvick just got discharged he was asking to see a replay here I'm not really sure what happened just know that They hit me from behind.

You know I got a little sidetracked trying to push the 40 or the 87 and I just rolled over, so just part of it. I mean, you hate him for everyone at Armor and RCR for having to fix the car. but that's

talladega

man lick you hard okay yeah im fine kevin harvick okay that's the good news mike thanks that's taylor molson behind harvick also involved in the accident and obviously discharged for the medical center. Did you see that yellow board with the areas for stabilizing the head and so on and the safety workers continue to attend to eric mcclure other drivers involved in the accident with mike taylor uh many cars many loud licks what did you see?

All I saw was Kevin come in front of me and I hit him. and then trying to get around the rest I thought we'd be fine and then the seven of them came and got us again and just took out the front uh I don't know what we could do just pack up real soon you know? I'm very happy that the GL guys brought me a nice car that we are driving. I thought we could easily finish in the top 10 today, but it wasn't meant to be. I've never finished a race here and stayed on the road, I guess this race is reminiscent of what we saw in February at Daytona, why do we see so many warnings at the end of these races with restrictor plates?

I think now, with the temperatures getting so high in the engines, you just waited during our race and you were able to just push those last two laps and just your blue bike, your blue engine and I think that's what makes everyone race so hard to get the win and you know, the competition is so close here in the national series and it's a lot of fun, but it sucks. to finish on the hook, taylor malson, another eliminated in that accident, there you see the work continues inside turn number three and eric mcclure receives assistance from that race car, eric has had his share of difficult breaks, it was a year, last week. that his home and many people in his hometown in southwest Virginia were damaged by a series of tornadoes that passed through, of course, his family with a long history of racing with the Morgan McClure racing team very successfully here in Talladega, victories in the Daytona 500, and so on.

We will continue to provide you with any updates we can as soon as possible. It will take a little time to clean up all this mess in the back right away before they can remove the red flag. The pushbacks come to pick up all the cars. One thing that would worry the rest of these cars a little is that they should when you turn them off and lose a little bit of water from the overflow, sometimes they shed a little bit of water, but you should be fine with just a couple of laps back. I don't think they care much about how much they have there.

No, I don't think they are worried about that point. They should be able to push as hard as they want. From this point on some are going to have to continue dealing with some damage they have on their cars others are just ready to get it over with you you got to this point you're sitting there he's hot you We're sweating, ready for this to happen and we wait everyone's okay so in regards to the fact that we only have all the preliminary word on eric mcclure's condition, we want to go back and take a look at what happened that triggered this multi-car accident heading into turn three at the backstretch looked like a net made a move to try to go down the middle it looked like he was getting a push and was going to try to make this happen all closed up as you can see when kyle busch passed brad keselowski tried to pass that was joey logano the one behind the net yeah its like i said everyone is trying to get to the front and those holes close so fast you see the safest barrier swerve tremendously when eric mcclure hit it thank god he was there yeah you can see right after this, there is no safer support, all that is just a product of the race, the closeness and the time to try to win or make as many positions as possible.

Can McClure will be transported to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center for further treatment and again, any updates we have we will pass on as soon as possible to continue monitoring the situation. Any information we have will be provided as soon as possible. It's possible and we still have to finish the race here at Talladega. We will return after this message and a few words from our ABC stations. The Nascar national series race at Talladega Super Speedway is under red flag after a multi-car crash heading into the turn. The number three damaged several cars and also damaged the most secure barrier after a heavy impact on that barrier involving a couple of drivers, including Eric McClure, who was assisted from his car and will be transported to a hospital in Birmingham for an evaluation and additional treatment.

We continue to monitor and will bring you any information as soon as possible, so we still have to finish the race and although we remain concerned about Eric McClure, they will finish the race and if you are a driver, go for it. I've been in this situation before sitting there strapped to one of those race cars, you may have seen the replay on the big screen or you may have seen it in front of you through the windshield and now you're going to race again. new, bumper to bumper, door to door at 190 miles an hour, how do you do it?

And without sounding too callous, I mean you're here as a competitor and that's what you do, and every driver goes into these races with the idea that things can happen, but you have that mental concept.that it's not going to happen to you and you wish and hope the best for the people who are involved in accidents, but you're still sitting there, this race is going to end and you have to get through it. your mind gets back to normal and do the job you came here to do and finish this and when we get back to the races you might think it would calm things down but I've seen the races be just as wild as what we saw there every time they came back because that It's what you do, you compete and you have to continue doing it, yes as a crew chief or owner you're down there, well you want to refocus, try to get your driver to focus on what's left.

Still, like you said, we have a race to finish, we try to get them to concentrate, but there's nothing you can do, this just happened, it's part of the deal, everyone knows it's a risky sport, but you have to refocus. The task at hand is to win this race and to achieve that, perhaps there will be a second green and white checkered finish. Repairs continue down the road.A safer barrier at the rear extends inside the wall before the field of cars is turned on and sent back under the caution flag and then finally the green flag to decide the race.

Check out those big foam blocks, something designed by the folks at the University of Nebraska, the Midwest center for highway safety, Dr. Dean Sicking and his folks, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a driving force initially behind He and Nascar certainly came together and a lot of research has been done to design them for different types of race cars, different types of race tracks, different locations. on the racetracks and has certainly been one of the great safety advances in the sport. I donated a car at the beginning of this project when they were developing this wall. I donated one of our cup cars.

I thought they were going to test drive the car. I didn't realize they were testing the wall when I got it back. They had pushed it against the wall at about 170 miles an hour to see how these walls would hold up and you can see that they've done a really good job developing this and they have all these different sized blocks so they can repair this wall and make it safe again, yeah, you know, and originally this was all designed for the outside, for the walls that you see that are along the outside of the running surface, but as things evolved, you realized Realize that there are many places where these drivers and cars collide and therefore they must be located in other areas and the Nascar tracks have done a tremendous job of covering most of those places, so the cars have been shot again , you hear the red flag being removed.

The yellow flag is displayed, meaning those teams with cars in the pit lane that need to be worked on can now resume work on cars that are not allowed to work on them under the red flag. flag and when the field moves away we go to dr. jerry hits back in the spotlight mike lynette comes out first of all michael you're okay yeah I'm okay I'm just disappointed to run in the top five there on that green and white checkered restart and we were We were smart and we played playing it safe all day and then a really good push and we tried to shoot in the middle and you know, when you get a push like that you have to do something with it, if you hit the brakes, they spin you around and you know, and that was just an effect accordion, so I stayed there.

It had a hole in there and it closed and I couldn't really. At that point we were in the hole and couldn't really do anything about it. You ran the medical center and I saw that Eric McClure's family was nearby. Any news told you about his condition. Actually, we weren't in the ambulance and I saw him obviously get out of the car and he was talking, so, you know, I think he probably hit his head. a little bit and you know they're definitely concerned about our safety and they're just taking all the precautions they need to be okay michael annette and we're waiting for some official reports on the eric mcclure situation guys doctor thank you did you hear michael's description annette on the Crash, he went for that three wide hole with a big push in Joey Logano's draft and had a great run, the problem was Kyle Bush was getting a push from Brad Keselowski.

Brad moved in to take it, but Kyle was clear. of any car, but it kind of made a network run out of space, just one of the things that happened in the races in these groups: Brad Keselowski driving his car back to pit lane and now back to the race track and trying to reach the tail. end of the field