NFL players are getting dinged every week with concussions. Sidney Crosby, the best player in the NHL, hasn't played since January because of a concussion. Yet it's interesting to note that no one in NASCAR is missing significant time after getting his head banged around.
And one can easily argue that NASCAR is the most dangerous professional sport, unless you want to throw in bullfighting.
Credit a quiet revolution over the years. NASCAR reacted quickly and boldly after the death of icon Dale Earnhardt in 2001, and the sport has been better for it because of all the safety measures that have been implemented.
"It's actually quite a few components to our sport that lowered the concussion rate and the fatality standpoint," Jimmie Johnson said. "We look at a threshold, and the impact that was estimated for Earnhardt's crash, and now … we have the data recorders and you can see that we are well in excess of that and guys aren't even losing consciousness or breaking shoulders. We used to break shoulders just because of a seat design, so we've come a long way, and there is a lot of technology out there that can be applied to other sports.
"People love the crashes, people love the hits in football, but you have to keep the athletes safe and protect their lives, their families and put on a good show. ... It wasn't until NASCAR really got serious about things and started implementing it, and (it) also took the loss of the greatest driver out there, Dale Earnhardt, for us to say, 'Hey, this superman essentially has been killed, we need to wake up.'"