While I love the safety improvements that have been added over the years, I truly believe that this sort of racing is a direct result of safety improvements and nearly totally enclosed cockpits. While it is still dangerous, the "fear" of being seriously injured or killed is mostly gone. I have no interest in going back to the days of seeing a weekly death notice on the cover of Speed Sport News, but the risk of injury or death had a tempering effect on the aggressive moves that were made by the drivers.