In NASCAR’s modern history, there has not been a more feared injury than a basilar skull fracture. This injury made its mark on NASCAR from the early 90s up to 2001 and claimed the lives of many drivers and injured several more. In the span of 17 months from April 2000 and October 2001, NASCAR drivers died from basilar skull fractures and set the sport into a time of panic and fear. Despite the high fatality rate of this injury, there were drivers that survived this injury. Rick Carelli, Stanley Smith, and Ernie Irvan are all well documented cases of survivors of basilar skull fractures. Today we’re going to talk about the story of Larry Pollard, the forgotten survivor of NASCAR’s worst injury.
Larry Pollard’s Escape From Death At Dover
Turn notifications on and SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss a video! Also leave a comment letting me know your favorite part or how I can improve! Thanks for watching!
For Business Inquiries: contact@nfjjracing.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nascarfan4888JJ
MY WEBSITE!: https://www.nfjjracing.com/
I do not own any of the footage in this video, all credit goes to the respective owners: NASCAR, NASCAR Media Group, Fox, NBC, NBC Sports, ESPN.
32 Comments
First viewer
Not very often I learn something new about drivers who sustained this injury, but I never heard of Larry.. great job as always
love these videos!
I mean… Daniel Suárez is not American and he won on three oval tracks in the Xfinity series in 2016 and won the championship….
Great storytelling
I wonder if Bubba Pollard is his son?
Bro…. There is no Harry Grant. I'm kinda stunned that u kept saying that. It's GANT.
For real?
Larry is a super cool guy we met a year ago And stay in touch
Great video.
Very well put together. Thanks. A great watch.
Check out the interview with Larry Pollard on the Scene Vault Podcast. Very good interview.
The photos of Roy Smith in the 11 car are from Langley Speedway in Langley BC Canada and the photographer is Brent Martin.
Earl Ross and Reg Kennedy are other notable Canadian stock car drivers.
good to see this many local guys from Western Speedway have gone on to NASCAR
Lucky man.
What's so insidious about basilar skull fracture is HOW it kills: massive hemorrhage.
I never heard of Larry Pollard before. What a miraculous story.
It is Harry GANT. Not Harry Grant
For those curious. In layman’s terms. A base of skull fracture is caused by the restrained torso with no head restraint. So the car impacts&decels. The torso decels, & the head continues at speed. It results in the spinal cord catching the head via the brain. So the 3lb brain is tethered by the spinal cord. The brain then impacts the base of the skull at whatever Velocity loss you took. Dale had a 36-42mph velocity loss in 2milliseconds or so. It wasn’t some crazy deceleration. I had a 115-125mph decel in 1999’ and although I was screwed up bad, I just got lucky the roof of the car stopped by head before the spinal cord could snap or yank the brain very hard into the base of my skull. I did fracture my skull by it’s literally a game of millimeters. If the head strays a hair past the max design load it will fracture the skull in a O-Ring shaped fracture. Imagine getting hit in the head by a 3lb object @42mph. That’s not counting the slingshot or whip effect the spinal cord is capable of producing. You can literally have a small sonic boom like a whip or sling.
Your voice sounds super annoying in this video. Put some background music in there with it
Beautiful video man great work!
Great video! Awesome to see some light shed on Larry pollard and Western speedway, it was my home track until it’s closing at the end of 2022.
♥️🏁🇺🇸👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Did you get your ideas from my blog? I don't really care either way, you do great work and Pollard's story is one I wish I'd expanded upon.
I know him personally! I've raced at the Go kart track many times and developed a friendship with him and his son. They are awesome people!
Omg how did he escape
I vaguely remember him. I didn't know he survived this injury =or= of his facility in Taylorsville.
Harry GANT!!
I was at that race and it was extremely hot. A lot of people speculated that he passed out from the heat while driving. It didn’t look to be caused by a right front tire failure. I often wondered whatever happened to him. Thanks for sharing!
For those morbidly curious Smiff TV has an uncut satellite broadcast of the 93 Diehard 500 which shows pretty well what a BSF looks like. Amazing Smith survived that
This is wild. Western speedway is my local track that just unfortunately closed down
Jerry Nadeau also made it thru post 2001 era
Pollard race track is closed 🙁