I personally don't believe there was as much of a cover up as there was a rush to lay blame. In my opinion, that was the first time that I had ever seen NASCAR make a rash and uncalculated move that put them in a bad position.

Like Bill Simpson or not, he didn't deserve that. What NASCAR never counted on was that at the core of Bill Simpson he is a tenacious fighter who will not stop. He is as headstrong as they are and he will not stop until he feels he is vindicated.

NASCAR always took the stance that the less rules they had in place for safety, the less they felt they would be responsable in case of death or severe injury.

Many drivers had no gloves,open face helmet, single layer suit w/no underwear. Sr. used a modified seat out of I believe a van and they didn't mount the belts in a way that was approved by the manufacturer. The heat from the floor eventually made them brittle.

The saddest part of the whole thing is that they waited until the death of one of their twin headed cash cows to really start concentrating on safety. There was what:3-5 deaths before that and they made very little effort to see what was going on.

The structure of the cars had changed and the drivers were absorbing more of the forces the cars produced during a crash.

Of course now they claim every safety innovation that comes down the road and the truth is that IMS is either responsible or was the proving grounds for nearly all of the safety innovations that have been developed in American Motorsport.