Carbon Monoxide Issue Is Examined

Sunday’s 45th Daytona 500 probably was the last one run with a silent, invisible enemy of NASCAR drivers: carbon monoxide poisoning.

A solution is near for a problem as old as stock car racing itself, where toxic fumes from front-mounted engines can turn enclosed driver compartments into gas chambers, especially if exhaust systems are damaged in wrecks.

Carbon monoxide can be so deadly in sufficient amounts that it’s routinely used in euthanasia of animals at pounds. No driver has ever died of it, but many have suffered from it through the decades.

“The first time I was affected was in 1963,” says NASCAR’s all-time winningest driver, Richard Petty, 65, who won 200 races and seven championships in his 35-year career.

Petty was so sick that “it was four or five races before I could drive 100% again.”

Thirty years later in 1993, a rookie driver named Jeff Gordon -- who went on to be a four-time champion -- was feeling the effects.

“I recognized it early on,” Gordon said. “Headaches, my voice changing, the dehydration becoming more of a factor. I knew it had to be what I was breathing.”

Now, NASCAR chief technical officer Gary Nelson believes technology is about to eradicate carbon monoxide exposure.

Nelson is hoping to have a device approved and ready to recommend to drivers for use in the spring. He says the system acts like a catalytic converter, which reduces emissions from passenger cars, but operates at a lower temperature so as not to increase heat in the driver compartments.

Application of the technology is the result of studies begun last fall both at racetracks and at NASCAR’s new research and development facility near Charlotte, N.C.

Though the problem has been acknowledged and examined for decades -- Petty recalls participating in studies as early as 1971 -- the issue surfaced again last fall when driver Rick Mast was diagnosed with chronic ailments caused by cumulative effects of carbon monoxide over the years.

Last month, Mast decided to retire from racing saying he becomes ill at even minimal exposure to carbon monoxide, such as pushing a gasoline-powered lawnmower.

Mast is by no means typical, as he had received large doses of the deadly gas long before he reached NASCAR. He had grown up working on cars, and “in the winter time, we worked in the garage with the doors shut and the windows closed,” he said in announcing his retirement in January.

When Mast told Nelson what he had been exposed to in his youth, Nelson was shocked.

“Running an engine with the garage doors closed? A lot of people who did that aren’t around anymore,” Nelson said.

Mast is the only driver ever to retire citing carbon monoxide.

Drivers believe their greatest risk occurs after being in an accident and then continuing to race.

“[Exposure occurs] mainly when the sides get knocked in, or you break the headers [pipes that connect the exhaust to the engine],” said driver Kyle Petty, Richard’s son. “These cars are assembled a lot better than they’ve ever been. Even though we didn’t know they [engineers] were helping the issue, they’ve helped a lot by tightening up things.”

So, “It’s not an every-driver, every-race issue,” Nelson said.

Even so, NASCAR last fall went aggressively to work on prevention of exposure in its race cars.

“From the moment I told [NASCAR president] Mike Helton, they have taken this thing and run with it in trying to get data on it and solve this problem,” Mast said.

NASCAR began a broad-based study that included the exhaust systems of the cars, a search for the right breathing devices, and measurements of drivers’ carbon monoxide blood levels.

At least five drivers were scheduled to be tested both before and after the Daytona 500, according to Nelson, though he wouldn’t name them.

NASCAR has been advising teams on how to better seal off the driver compartments from the engine and to check meticulously for any cracks is the exhaust systems.

But even the best-sealed cars are vulnerable to carbon monoxide leakage after crashes. And if drivers continue racing in damaged cars, they risk exposure.

Racing teams use various systems to bring in fresh air from outside the cars and blow it through hoses into drivers’ enclosed helmets.

And some are already using catalysts to convert carbon monoxide into breathable air, Nelson said.

But the teams’ individual experiments should no longer be necessary.

“We’re real close to making recommendations to the competitors on how to have a system that will provide the freshest air,” Nelson said.

NASCAR came under heavy criticism in 2000-2001 for its safety standards and practices. Four drivers in its three major series, including Winston Cup icon Dale Earnhardt, died in a nine-month period, all of head and neck injuries while the sanctioning body declined to mandate scientifically proven head restraints.

The controversy quieted in October of 2001 when NASCAR ordered all its drivers to wear either the HANS (head and neck support) or Hutchens devices while racing or practicing. There hasn’t been a driver fatality, or even a life-threatening injury, in NASCAR since.

NASCAR Chairman Bill France Jr. maintains his organization is no more or less proactive on safety than ever.

“What you’re seeing now is that we’re more proactive on publicizing it -- bragging about it,” France says. “We haven’t changed our approach, as far as being just as interested in safety as we ever were.”

But there are many signs of what even some France confidants privately call “the new NASCAR.”

The sanctioning body last month opened, to media scrutiny, its new, 61,000-square-foot research and development facility in the Charlotte suburb of Concord, N.C.

Sunday’s race was the second Daytona 500 since Earnhardt’s death on the last lap of the 43rd running in 2001.

“They’re going through the safety processes, and it’s incredible how far it’s come in two years,” said Kevin Harvick, the driver who stepped into Earnhardt’s storied Goodwrench Chevrolet.

“Now they’re nitpicking,” Harvick said, pointing out that the carbon monoxide problem isn’t nearly as serious as the basilar skull fracture issue that raged after Earnhardt’s death. “This is something that isn’t of the caliber of having to wear a HANS or Hutchens to keep your head on your shoulders. But it’s something that is important and needs to be addressed.

“And I think this will be the next topic that’s going to go in leaps and bounds in a hurry.”

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As for the problem of carbon monoxide exposure itself, “I don’t think it’s any different than it’s ever been,” Richard Petty said. “It probably came to the forefront because somebody had to quit because of it.”

“It’s always been an issue,” said Kyle Petty. “Rick is an extreme case.”

For the last 10 years of his career, until he retired in 1992, Richard Petty experimented with various preventive measures for carbon monoxide exposure. Once he even tried a mask similar to those worn by jet fighter pilots.

“We worked and worked trying to find filters and stuff, and we just never found anything that worked,” Kyle Petty said.

As recently as last season, some drivers had been using filtering systems, one in particular with a charcoal element, which the NASCAR study found to be useless.

Running bottled carbon monoxide through filters in the laboratories at the new R&D; complex, “We found that nothing will filter it, because it’s not a particle,” Nelson said. “It goes through just like air.

“That had us a little discouraged until we did further study and found that you can convert it with a catalyst. You take this low-temperature catalyst and it scrubs the carbon monoxide out of the air.”

Preventing exposure is the goal, because carbon monoxide production by engines is inevitable.

“It will always be an issue,” Kyle Petty said. “Anywhere you’ve got an internal combustion engine, it’s going to be an issue. If I’m a cop working traffic at an intersection in New York City, chances are I’m getting carbon monoxide while I’m standing there.

“We just put ourselves in a little more dangerous position than the layperson is in. For 40 years you’ve seen Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Dave Marcis, all these drivers, pulled out of cars because of carbon monoxide and heat.

“We used to call it heat. Well, the heat is a factor. But you can stand heat if you’ve got good air.”

Indeed, NASCAR now suspects that drivers may have been mistaking their symptoms for decades.

“The symptoms of exposure to carbon monoxide are very similar to the symptoms of heat exhaustion and fatigue,” Nelson said.

“Now we know,” Nelson said. “We’ve trained our medical people, and we’ve got the ability now to take the proper measures. If a driver comes to the care center and says, ‘I’ve got a headache, I’m really tired, I feel dehydrated....’ Well, if you open the book to heat exhaustion, you’ll find the same list. But we know enough now to say, ‘Blow into this balloon and we’ll check your carbon monoxide level.’ ”

For next year’s Daytona 500, that system will still be in place -- but may no longer be necessary.