What happened, exactly? There isn’t much on record to the cause, but the aftermath was caught on video: during a Goody’s Dash race, Danny Bagwell’s Ford Escort ZX2 ricocheted off of the wall at Turn Four just prior to the pit road entrance at Daytona and the car proceeded to barrel roll, throwing off body parts, suspension pieces, the entire rear axle assembly…by the time the whole mess comes to a halt, it’s a roll cage and little more. The destruction of the car alone is impressive, and that wasn’t even all of it. He managed to wax a portion of the fence bad enough to warrant a red flag situation. Echoing such bad crashes as Geoff Bodine’s positively brutal crash at the same track during a Craftsman truck crash in 2000, and Ryan Newman’s monster beating that he took at this year’s Daytona 500, anything identifying this car was shredded and flung well away. And just like those wrecks, Bagwell lived through it.

Anyone who questions any kind of safety regulation doesn’t grasp the concept that safety rules tend to be written in blood. Open-faced helmets were allowed in NASCAR until after Dale Earnhardt, Sr.’s crash. Roof flaps were brought into the game after cars sliding backwards would catch air and turn into flying objects. Rollcages have to take stresses and beatings the likes of which are unfathomable in normal, everyday driving. The fact that Bagwell was getting checked out for a swollen ankle and little else is the testament to the safety gear working, and the rollcage being up to the task.