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NASCAR proceeds as quietly as it can

Stealth on safety issues has been the M.O.

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 28, 2001

Through his words and actions, Jeff Burton has made it clear his priorities don't lie with just races or championships won. He is a husband, a father, a son and a brother.

And he wants to stay alive.

One of the most vocal Winston Cup drivers on safety issues, Burton was hyperactive about advancing driver protection even before Dale Earnhardt died Feb. 18.

"I don't mind being outspoken on any issue, but I don't want to be outspoken on all issues," he said. "I want to be outspoken on issues that I believe in and that I understand."

NASCAR, on the other hand, has adopted a policy of withholding information on its safety efforts even after four driver deaths in the past year.

"Our decision, because we have such a broad range of constituents, is to limit that flow of knowledge because we have to go through a barrel of 100 items to find the one that works," NASCAR president Mike Helton said at a news conference March17.

In the aftermath of Earnhardt's death, NASCAR:

Sent Earnhardt's car to North Carolina and has kept details of its investigation -- aside from the broken left lap belt -- from Daytona Beach police and the public.

Sent Earnhardt's broken lap belt for testing but will not say who is performing the test, how long it might take and if the results will be made public.

Waited until after Teresa Earnhardt and the Orlando Sentinel reached a mediated agreement over viewing autopsy photos of the driver to reveal that its expert had viewed the photos weeks before.

Declined to discuss details of a safety and research facility it plans to open near Hickory, N.C., or developments of a project with the Indy Racing League and the University of Nebraska to test walls that dissipate energy in a crash.

"There is not an absolute way to get our story out 100 percent correctly anyway," Helton said. "So we choose to keep that knowledge to a relative group of constituents, which is in the garage area and applied through the inspection process, and that's our standard practice today."

Drivers and crew members say NASCAR keeps them informed of its safety efforts.

"NASCAR has always been -- and I'm sure will always be -- a company that doesn't go out and tell everybody what they're doing," Burton said. "I don't disagree with them on that. As far as letting the competitors know, I give them high marks."

But withholding information from the public can have a price, public relations experts say.

"I do think in this kind of situation, when you're under such intense scrutiny, if people don't tell the whole truth, some questions will come up," said Kim Kumiega, executive vice president for crisis and issues management at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide in Chicago. "And once someone determines that you have not been truthful with them, everything else you've shared with them comes under scrutiny and question."

Because NASCAR is privately owned and there is no regulatory commission, it has freedom to handle a crisis in whatever way it wishes without answering to shareholders. But NASCAR needs to maintain a positive image to succeed.

"A lot of companies think it's just their fiscal assets that are important," said Kathleen Hessert, president of Sports Media Challenge, a Charlotte, N.C.-based strategic communications training and consulting company. "Frankly, and especially with sports organizations, it's the perceptual assets that are of equal or more value than the fiscal assets."

NASCAR's standard answer is that its safety efforts are "works in progress."

"On a daily basis -- certainly on a week-in and week-out basis -- the evolution of a NASCAR-type stock car is an ongoing work in progress," Helton said. "We get smarter every day by collectively discussing things with the guys in the garage area."

Saying something is a "work in progress" is okay, Kumiega said, as long as a company has something to show for it.

"As long as you have a couple of things to point to, like, "We have very aggressive plans for the next three years. What we've done in the last six months are A, B and C,' " Kumiega said. "You do have to demonstrate or quantify or have something anecdotally to bring some validity to your point. You just can't say, "We're working on it.' You need to have numbers."

NASCAR this month released a list of 52 safety improvements since 1994. Kumiega said the organization might benefit from discussing its plans for the safety research facility in North Carolina or its efforts at Nebraska.

"I do think that any messages that they could deliver that they are trying to add a layer of protection for the drivers would be a good idea," Kumiega said. "On the other hand, if they don't have details to share, I'd rather they wait and say, "We're building this. Once we have something to share, we'll tell you.' "

Those who know about the projects near Hickory, N.C., and at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility outside Lincoln, Neb., are reluctant to talk.

Even Burton.

"I'm not in the position to discuss the stuff that I know," he said. "I haven't been told not to discuss it, but I also haven't been told that I can discuss it."

Said James Ince, crew chief for Johnny Benson: "The only thing I know about Nebraska is ... they grow a lot of corn there."

Dean L. Sicking, the safety facility's director and a professor of civil engineering at Nebraska, said the facility has a non-disclosure agreement with the IRL and NASCAR. "There's just not very much interest (from NASCAR or the IRL) in letting the media and poorly informed public reaction control the research program," Sicking said, adding that he last spoke to somebody from NASCAR on March 16.

"You can understand how fraught with foolishness that would get to. Because if you have a product that might be some help but not very much help, the public would push you to install it when if you waited six months, you could have a product that could be a great help."

The message from NASCAR is the public will hear something when the time is right, when all the research has been done and the cost isn't prohibitive.

"We just keep studying ... until we feel like the change is going to be better for, No. 1, safety, No. 2, competition or No. 3, cost to the car owners," Helton said. "If it passes that test, we go out and do it. I can't say when any of the ideas we have on the table will pass any of those tests or all of those tests, but when they do, you'll hear about it."

And that's fine with Burton.

"I've never been one, when it comes to safety, to really care what people that didn't take the risk thought," Burton said.

"To me, it's not, should it have anything to do with public relations or should it have to do with marketing? It ought to all be about what's the most effective way to make things better. And I think by not talking about it in public makes it easier to be effective."

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