Busch Daytona crash a NASCAR wake-up call - Harvick

Kyle Busch's Daytona accident was a wake-up call to NASCAR tracks that should have been more proactive on safety, says Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick.

Busch missed the Daytona 500 when he suffered a broken leg in a crash in the supporting Xfinity Series race last Saturday night.

His Joe Gibbs Toyota hit the inside wall head-on during a multi-car pile-up.

The wall in question was not protected by a SAFER barrier, although Daytona chiefs have promised one will now be installed.

Harvick remained unhappy that this was only happening following a serious accident.

"I hit the same wall further up last year and voiced my opinion and unfortunately I was just a dot on the chart and there was no reaction," he said.

"Hopefully this is a lesson learned. You don't want to have a reaction, the tracks have to be proactive, they have to look ahead for accidents that might happen.

"We know what fixes these walls and that's to put a [SAFER] wall in front of them.

"That's why we wear a helmet. That is why we wear a harness, that's why we ware firesuits, that's why we have fire bottles.

"It's for that one moment that you have to protect yourself against - 98-99 per cent of the time things are going to be fine so help us by trying to prevent that one situation.

"Kyle Busch, one of our sport's biggest stars, is out and not able to race because of the lack of attention to the safety on these superspeedways.

"It is unfortunate and I hope we all take something from this. Fortunately it is not a situation to the magnitude of [Dale] Earnhardt's but in my opinion it is a wake-up call to make sure that we do things right.

"This sport is still tremendous amounts safer than it was 15 years ago.

"Unfortunately we had that one situation where all the stars lined up and things happen."

Tyres were added in front of the wall Busch hit in time for Sunday's Daytona 500, with work beginning on a permanent SAFER barrier following the race.

Track president Joie Chitwood admitted Daytona had let the drivers down.

"The Daytona International Speedway did not live up to its responsibility," he said.

"We should have had a SAFER barrier there; we did not. We're going to fix that.

"We don't want to see any competitors injured here. We can't allow this to happen again."