DAYTONA BEACH - NASCAR CEO Brian France said International Speedway Corp., the company that owns several tracks including Daytona International Speedway, should in some way help the family of the 44-year-old safety worker who was killed while clearing debris during a Dash race Sunday.
Roy H. Weaver III, supervisor of the track crew and a former equipment and field manager with the Bucs, was struck by driver Ray Paprota, leaving a wife and three children.
"I'm not sure ISC or the Dash series is looking at anything with the family right now," said France, whose family owns ISC. "I know (Weaver) was a person everyone knew and worked for ISC for quite a while. He was very admired.
"I don't know how it shakes out, but I'm certain something will develop for the family. There should be."
Paprota, a paraplegic driver who was making his first start on a superspeedway, issued a statement Tuesday.
"I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to the family of Roy Weaver," he said. "I can't begin to imagine the grief the family must be going through. I understand from others that Roy loved his role in motorsports as much as I love mine. My prayers go out to everyone involved and I pray this type of tragic incident never happens again. If there is anything I can do to assist the family in this time of grief, I welcome them to contact me."
The death was ruled an accident Tuesday.
BIG ONE: Drivers lament "the big wreck" at the Daytona 500. Get caught in it or behind it and your day could be ruined.
NASCAR-mandated changes that made the side walls and compounds of Nextel Cup tires more prone to wear this season enhance the likelihood of a big one Sunday, Jeff Gordon said.
"The tires start wearing out and you start slipping and sliding around and banging into each other," he said. "We saw more accidents in the Bud Shootout this year than we have in a long time, especially it being a short race like that."
FAST TRACK: Bang! Racing, the first-year NASCAR truck series team owned by 23-year-old Internet entrepreneur Alex Meshkin, announced plans Tuesday to run at least 10 late-season Nextel Cup races with its truck drivers - Travis Kvapil and Mike Skinner - and another as-yet-undetermined person.
Bang! is one of four new Toyota truck teams in the NASCAR series. It will not use Toyotas in the Nextel Cup series, though Toyota officials have expressed an interest in racing there in the future.
Meshkin said his team tentatively plans to race the final 10 events of the season excluding Talladega. He hopes to race as many as 12 events in preparation for mounting a full-time Cup campaign in 2005.
Pat Wall, director of NASCAR programs for Toyota, said he doesn't think Bang! is going too fast for a startup operation.
"We have nothing to say about it or not any problems with it," he said. "I would say we probably never even thought of it as an issue. Teams for the most part know what they have to do, and that's a pretty wise organization."
Kvapil, the 2003 truck series champion, never has made a start in NASCAR's top stock car series. Skinner, the 1995 trucks champion, has 229 Winston Cup starts.
PIT STOPS: John Andretti, driving Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s No.1 Chevrolet, had the top average speed in two practice sessions Tuesday at 191.742. Dave Blaney's No. 23 Dodge was second-best (191.738), followed by Matt Kenseth's No.17 Ford (191.644). All three speeds were reached in the morning. Gordon was fastest in the afternoon at 191.510.
