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NASCAR pledges action on fences before Talladega after Daytona crash

NASCAR has promised to implement any immediate lessons from its review of the Nationwide crash at Daytona in time for this year's races at Talladega

Senior vice president Steve O'Donnell said NASCAR's comprehensive review would concentrate first on what changes can be made for Talladega, the second superspeedway after Daytona, and then on changes to the sport as a whole.

O'Donnell stressed however that there was no set timetable for changes and that NASCAR would apply lessons if and when they arise from the investigation.

Twenty-eight fans were injured, two of them critically, when debris from a last-lap crash in the Daytona Nationwide race pierced the debris fencing.

"Really [it's] a two-phase process we're looking at," O'Donnell explained.

"Superspeedway racing with Daytona and Talladega is going to be the first concentration for us.

"We have a race coming up in May at Talladega; anything we can learn in the immediate future that can be applied to Talladega, we'll do that.

"The second phase is all of our racetracks. We race on a number of different facilities, as you all know.

"Each of those tracks is unique, different speeds, different banking. All those factors need to be thought through as you look to make any changes that may be recommended.

"[There is] no set timetable as to when this will be completed other than the fact that we know the [Talladega] race is coming up in May. Anything we can do, we'll apply in May.

"But when you talk about safety, there's no goal of safety or no end goal of safety; it's something we work on each and every day.

"If there's something we can find out tonight, we'll apply that. If it's two months from now, we'll apply that as well."

O'Donnell said NASCAR would go through a detailed investigation of Kyle Larson's car, including comprehensive video analysis and consulting outside experts, in a bid to understand every aspect of the accident.

In particular he said NASCAR would investigate how to strengthen fencing given that many safety elements in Larson's car had performed as expected.

"[It is] important to note that most of the safety elements in that car did their job. The driver, as you saw, walked away," O'Donnell said.

"There's been talk if the tethers broke away or not. They did not.

"The car, however, got up into the fence.

"Our focus is going to be if the elements in the car did their job, what do we need to do to the impact to the fence."

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