ACS Gets SAFER...Barriers Installed Where Hamlin Crashed

When Denny Hamlin augered into the inside wall last year at Auto Club Speedway, just after his slap-fight with Joey Logano, he hit very hard.

And he happened to hit the wall where it was just wall, not the SAFER Barrier that rings the outside portion of most oval tracks.

That resulted in fractured vertebrae, the loss of five races and the utter demolition of his 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

NASCAR.com’s David Caraviello confirmed Tuesday from an ACS track spokesperson that an additional 1,000 feet of the Steel And Form Energy Reduction barrier has been added to the track on the inside of Turn 4. That covers the spot where Hamlin hit, incidentally.

That change happened last year, just before the IndyCars raced on the 2-mile oval.