[Stevensville Mike]

After watching the 500, the thing that is still stuck in my mind and stopped my heart was when Kyle Kirkwood's tire went over the Turn 2 fence. Fortunately it "split the uprights" so to speak and went between the grandstand and the motel.

But had that tire been about 30-40' to the right it would have been a disaster. It was no pop fly, either. It was more of a line drive.

I can only imagine the changes that would be required to oval tracks after that. Hockey never had nets around the backs of the goal areas until a death occurred in Columbus at a Blue Jackets game. Would there be some kind of extremely high fencing added or would they go to something like you have on Interstates highways right now to prevent vehicles from crossing the median? We call them car shredders. They will work once, for the most part, but they are cheaper than armco and can be replaced easier.

Or would tracks have to re-think where seating would be? I may have to assume some risk going to a race, but we all have to learn something from this and adjust our motorsports for spectators before it pyramids into a total disaster. Fences were raised after the three deaths at MIS in the late 90s, but nothing more has become of it. Now we are back to Square 1.

The announcers never addressed the tire until later. As if it was a hot potato. Almost as if we don't talk about it it never happened. Once they realized Kirkwood was safe all attention should have been directed at the tire issue. It wasn't until much later under the red flag that it was brought up.

As for three red flags in the closing 14 laps? What a total disembowelment of a fantastic race. Sometimes you have to just "let things die" and finish under yellow. A one lap shootout finish?