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The Automobile Club of the West (ACO), which sanctions the 24 Heures du Mans, will be under intense scrutiny over car safety after this incident.

All ALMS rules come from the the 81-year old French endurance classic and somehow the ACO and IMSA (which sanctions the ALMS, agreement between IMSA and ACO means ACO sets rules) need work on safety standards after this incident. IMSA can't set standards for the ALMS. They must yield to ACO when setting rules. One ACO rule prohibits cars from changing tires until the fueling has been finished, and under ACO rules, cars must be fueled at the agonising rate of one litre per second (1.06 quarts per second). During that stop, the only possible activity is driver changes. For a 22-gallon fuel tank, it can take nearly a minute and a half to fuel the car.

Sportscar racing has been a traditional part of Cup guys and it works both ways. Mark Martin won a few IMSA GT races in the late 1980's and early 1990's, and more than a fair share of Cup drivers have made appearances at the Rolex 24 over the years.

The late Rolf Stommolen, a German F1 journeyman and later sportscar driver who would be killed at Riverside, ran one NNCS race at Talladega in an ex-Holman & Moody Mercury (it was, as a 1967 Ford, Mario Andretti's Daytona 500 winner). That car later was sold to an independent driver based in Nashville who used it to run his first few Cup races. The rest for that driver is history, and is stored in his museum.

Tiny Lund's dramatic rescue of Marvin Panch took place while Panch was testing a sportscar.

Cup drivers love fans, and they love to come to the fans.

Question: Did the pneumatiques fail? Most ALMS cars run pneumatiques Michelin because of a deal between the brand and ACO. The Pratt & Miller Engineering Corvettes run pneumatiques Michelin. An investigation may take place in Greenville SC, but the ACO isn't even investigating the car. NASCAR would in such cases take the car to the impound and investigate what happened.

Blueflag and Mo1,

Dale Jr first used a closed-face helmet during a Corvette run, and that influenced his career. By the fall Atlanta race in 2002, Dale Jr switched to the full mask. He likes it aplenty and it showed today why disobeying his father worked. Darrell Waltrip went after Junebug shortly after his father's death over the helmet and it was a subject of his interview in 2001. In the interview, Junior said Senior seized the Corvette full-face helmet from him when he tried to wear it during Shootout practice.

The Esses has been a section of Infineon Dale Jr has pounded throught five years of Cup racing on the circuit and has enough experience. It's the Carousel, where his father passed Mark Martin to win an NNCS race in 1995, which he never raced, since the NNCS course removed the Carousel in 1998.

The reason Dale Jr was sent to UC Davis is directly related to Infineon policy on fire injuries. All injuries involving burns require drivers to be sent to this hospital. It's a matter of finding the best.

Dale shows he's a hard-nosed driver who came to the fans and decided to help Chevrolet's racing operations. That dedication will be worth it considering this year some of the top Cup stars have climed into sportscar cockpits. Chevrolet's top name driver goes down to help the brand with another race is big PR. You don't see Michael Schumacher going down to a GT class sportscar to help Ferrari win another race.

Earnhardt has worn Italian-made Sparco uniforms since 2002 in the wake of the Simpson dispute when Ty Norris (then general manager) joined Richard Childress and other top teams in ditching Simpson after Bill Simpson sold the company, and the teams chose the Sparco uniforms. The following full-time Nextel drivers use Sparco: 6, 8, 9, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 40, 41, 42. Those teams, plus the pit crew of the 48 and 31, also wear Sparco uniforms.