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Motorsports
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 21, 2003
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Carbon monoxide poisoning is something you're going to hear a lot about this weekend. What you aren't going to hear a lot about is what NASCAR has done to try to eliminate an old problem.
Bristol Motor Speedway is the place where the potential for harm from the gas is more acute than anywhere else NASCAR races. Kyle Petty once said, "Racing at Bristol is like flying a jet fighter in a gymnasium."
The half-mile oval is surrounded by more than 140,000 seats, making Bristol a gigantic bowl to stir and hold the fumes of 43 cars.
For years, drivers have climbed out of their cars feeling nauseated and sometimes disoriented. They would have a headache the next day that made a bad hangover seem like a paper cut.
"I just thought that was the way it was supposed to be," three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip said. "I would get out of the car and lie on the ground. My eyes were burning, and my head was pounding. It happened a lot. We just didn't know what it was back then."
Drivers didn't know the extent of the problem, but many have realized for years that toxic fumes could cause them to feel sick at times.
Some drivers experimented with ways to prevent it. Near the end of his career, Richard Petty used an oxygen mask similar to those fighter pilots wear.
No one will wear masks in Sunday's race. Most teams use filtering systems to bring fresh air into the car and blow it through hoses into drivers' enclosed helmets.
NASCAR engineers recently discovered that filters aren't the answer. The carbon monoxide passes through the filter, just like air does. The solution appears to be a type of catalytic converter that transforms carbon monoxide into harmless carbon dioxide.
Gary Nelson, NASCAR's director of competition, expects the converters to be in use on every car later this season. They still have a few kinks to work out, but a remedy is on the way.
By the time NASCAR returns to Bristol in August, it's likely the cars will have the converters and a problem that had plagued drivers for decades will be a thing of the past.