Easley Won’t Be Thrown Off Track

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Dan Kane & Rupen Fofaria, News & Observer

Gov. Mike Easley walked away from a high-speed crash Friday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, got into a second race car and raced some more at speeds up to 160 mph.

No big deal, said NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace. “I don’t think it’s dangerous,” he said.

But Rep. Mickey Michaux, after hearing of the wreck, said a governor should be more careful.

“I think if I was governor, I’d be a little more circumspect,” said Michaux, a Durham Democrat. “I don’t think I’d be in a race car. But hey, you take a chance crossing the street.”

As for Easley, he said his only injury was a bruised ego. “I was getting ready to come into the pits when it got loose in Turn 2 and spun,” Easley told speedway officials. “I guess I should have come in a lap earlier. It was quite a ride.”

He could not be reached for further comment.

The crash occurred Friday morning as Easley, driving a Chevy race car retired by Hendrick Motorsports, practiced in preparation for an education fund-raising event scheduled May 17 before The Winston.

Easley, whose first time behind the wheel occurred at Lowe’s last October, had completed more than 10 laps before the accident, according to accounts provided by speedway officials and the Governor’s Office.

On his 12th or 13th lap, his car fishtailed as he drove out of the second turn. As he tried to correct it, he oversteered to the left, and his steering wheel locked up. The car skidded out of Turn 2 and toward the retaining wall. The left-front end of the car made contact with the inside wall, and the car bounced off the wall and then struck again on its left-rear side. The impact heavily damaged the car, crushing its engine.

Speedway officials said that the emergency crews rushed to the scene, but Easley was already climbing out of the car, unhurt, when they arrived.

Cari Boyce, the governor’s spokeswoman, said Easley still planned to participate in next week’s fund-raising event. Backing The WinstonSponsors are pledging money for every lap Easley makes at speeds of 160 mph or more. The money goes to Communities In Schools, a nonprofit group that works to keep kids in school.

The spin is also intended to show his support for keeping The Winston at the speedway in Concord. The all-star event draws an estimated $ 75 million — based on a 1999 study — to the three counties surrounding the track.

Lowe’s only has a one-year commitment from NASCAR officials, who are weighing a plan to rotate the event among several tracks.

“It’s an important race to the community,” NASCAR driver and North Carolina-native Kyle Petty said. “I think it’s great that the governor’s a NASCAR fan, but really I just admire him for trying to keep the race here.”

Rep. Karen Ray, a Mooresville Republican, praised Easley for emphasizing The Winston’s importance to the local economy. Her company manufactures race car safety equipment, including some of the foam padding in the wrecked car.

“It says a lot for him in his role as governor that he’s taking such a hands-on role in promoting the industry,” Ray said.

Easley may in fact be the first sitting governor to race around a track. Two governors, including former North Carolina Gov. Jim Martin, have ridden in race cars driven by professional drivers, but they didn’t take the wheel.

Safety at high speeds

Lowe’s and other tracks allow fans to buy the experience of
racing around the banked asphalt.

At Lowe’s Richard Petty Driving Experience, fans go through a short instructional course and are then allowed to lap the track, alone, at speeds exceeding 150 mph. Easley’s quickest lap around Lowe’s on Friday was unofficially clocked at 163 mph.

Still, two fans have died in such courses, including one at Lowe’s in 1997.

Easley’s car was equipped with a device known as a restrictor plate that kept it from going faster than 180 miles per hour, Boyce said. He wore a head and neck safety harness, one of the devices that became mandatory after Dale Earnhardt died of a basilar skull fracture when he hit the wall at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 18, 2001.

Easley also turned the car toward the foam-padded interior retaining wall when he lost control.

“This was a situation where everything that needed to be done, safety-wise, was done, and he was fine,” speedway spokesman Scott Cooper said. “If there was no HANS device and no soft-wall there, he would’ve been hurt pretty bad. He wasn’t, though. He was laughing and joking.”

Political ramifications

Political observers said the mishap could cut both ways for the governor, who is up for re-election next year.

Voters might appreciate a governor with the nerve to zip around a racetrack, or they might find it foolhardy.

“We are a state with NASCAR racing, and he’s down there on a track doing racing, so there’s a certain amount of people that will resonate with,” said Thad Beyle, a UNC-Chapel Hill political science professor. “But I can’t imagine many people in the medical profession who will think that this was a great idea.”

Beyle expects Republicans are scrambling to get footage of the wreck for the governor’s race.

Already, the political spin is in full tilt now that everyone’s assured the governor is in good health.

Boyce said Easley’s crash shows “he will go to the wall for us.”

Former Carolina Hurricanes President Jim Cain, a Republican who may challenge Easley, joked: “I always suspected Mike Easley would hit a wall when he tried to move right.”

Actually, liberals are the ones who ought to be worried. Easley was making a left turn.

Here are some driving tips for Turn 2 from two Winston Cup drivers:

“I think he was probably on the gas too hard, so that would be a start. He should maybe let off [the accelerator] a little sooner next time.”
– STERLING MARLIN

“Like the announcer at your local racetrack tells you, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, be careful on the way home, and leave the fast driving to the race car drivers.’”
– KENNY WALLACE