I don't think any car crash is very funny.

Scott died at the scene.

Here's what I don't get: He hit a barrier wall at the end. Did the NHRA think that parachutes always work? Why wasn't there a barrier, like nascar has on the turns, or a sand pit, or a huge open field? A wall? R.I.P.

Some of the drivers are asking the same question ...


Kalitta's death illuminates need for safer NHRA
by Steve Kaminski | The Grand Rapids Press
Monday June 23, 2008, 11:25 AM

We've seen the video again and again, heard all of the heartfelt comments and read the reports.

Reality, though, didn't set in for me until I finally saw the final box score from Sunday's National Hot Rod Association SuperNationals in Englishtown, N.J.

Round 1 read:

"Robert Hight, Yorba Linda CA, '08 Mustang, Right lane, (1.513) 23.372 73.14 def. Scott Kalitta, Ypsilanti MI, '08 Solara, NT-No Show."

Kalitta was killed during Saturday's Funny Car qualifying session when his car burst into flames and crashed violently at the end of the dragstrip.

Unfortunately, all of this weekend's racing highlights -- Johnny Benson's NASCAR Craftsman Trucks win, Kyle Busch's road race dominance -- were overshadowed by Kalitta's death.

It's a time to grieve. But, we also need to find out what went wrong.

Kalitta was the second Funny Car driver to be killed in the past year. Eric Medlen lost his life in a test session accident.

And John Force was extremely lucky not to die after a violent crash last fall.

There were many touching words expressed by Kalitta's fellow drivers during ESPN2's taped-delayed coverage of Sunday's finals. But none were as compelling as what Funny Car's No. 1 qualifier Jim Head told ESPN2 during the broadcast.

Head was aggressive and edgy.

"We had an accident. What are we going to change so that accident doesn't happen again?" Head said. "After the John Force accident we literally made a giant step towards making these cars safer.

"Unfortunately, in this instance, the problem, it's the age old age problem. The race track is too short and we had some very unsafe conditions at the end of the race track. Scotty had a problem getting slowed down and he hit a concrete pole, which shouldn't have been there.

"Yeah, I can work on my parachute system, which already works pretty good. I have ordered some new brakes because mine are pretty old and it's time to step up and spend some more money.

"In fact, what it's really time to do is fix the unsafe conditions at the race end of race track. These tracks were all built in the 1950s and 1960s when these cars were all going to 200 mph. We are going 330 mph."

Good stuff from Head.

I really hope to see the NHRA react the same way NASCAR did after Dale Earnhardt was killed at Daytona in 2001. NASCAR did not make knee-jerk changes, but it was aggressive in its pursuit for safer conditions.

NASCAR has been the subject of plenty of criticism in recent years, but, you have to admit, from the revolutionary Car of Tomorrow to safer barriers, safety has improved.