Seven fans sustained minor injuries after being struck by flying debris when Carl Edwards' #99 car went airborne into the safety fence on the final lap of the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday. While trying to block a move from race winner Brad Keselowski, contact sent Andrews' car spinning over Ryan Newman's hood and into the fence on the frontstretch.

Track medical director Bobby Lewis said none of the injuries was life-threatening but two women were airlifted to Birmingham hospitals. Lewis said one, who was taken to UAB Hospital, likely had a broken jaw and also had a cut on her mouth. The other was transported to Brookwood Hospital because of an unspecified medical condition but was not hurt.
The other injured fans were treated and released, with two choosing to seek treatment locally from their own doctors, track spokeswoman Kristi King said. It wasn't clear if the fans were hit by debris from the car or the fence.

But the best part wasn't until after the crash, when Edwards exited the car, Ricky Bobby-style and took a sprint to the finish line. Heck, when even the NASCAR commentators mention the shades of Ricky Bobby in the action, you know you've got life imitating art.

Also interesting to us was NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter, sitting near a pile of twisted metal that came off Edwards' car, who said his first thought when he saw it headed toward the fence was, "I hope nobody's hurt." But just in case you're wondering whether he's worried about the fans in the stands first, wonder no more — the man's first concern is the money-making man in the car of tomorrow:

"No. 1, Carl. No. 2, the spectators. It was a sigh of relief when the car came back on the (track)," Hunter said. "I think that's the first time that fence has been hit."

Keselowski went on to continue digging a hole, saying he was thankful no one was seriously injured, but said there is some entertainment value to crashes.

"I don't want to wreck anyone, but to say a no-contact sport is fun, I don't buy that," he said. "These guys want to see contact just as much as I want to give it and take it." Well, don't we all?

Photo Credit: Getty Images Sport: Christian Petersen / Jerry Markland / Jason Smith

Wiggle your big toe. Wiggle it with enough determination and your feet, clad in racing boots, will pop into place. All snug? All buckled up? Palms not too sweaty on the balsa wood shifter knob? Good. Your toes will now serve as figureheads on a great German ship of aluminum and titanium. Now say hello to the twelve air-cooled cylinders set to turn your cabin into a furnace and blast you down the Mulsanne Straight at 246 MPH.

When the Porsche 917 debuted at the Geneva Motor Show on this day forty years ago, nobody knew it would come to define the very spirit of Porsche. The 917 gave the company its first of 15 victories at Le Mans. In four years, it morphed into the most powerful racing car ever made. Steve McQueen turned it into a movie star in his 1971 film Le Mans. But on that March day, all Porsche had was an unsorted prototype with abysmal aerodynamics. It would have died a quick death if not for the willpower of Ferdinand Piëch, who would go through similar misery to produce a car with similar perfomance thirty years later in the Bugatti Veyron.

The difference between the two is that anybody can drive the Veyron—as proven by Top Gear’s James May—but when the 917 debuted, racing drivers would’t touch it with a stick. And just consider the titanic amounts of chutzpah one needed to get into any death trap of a 60s racing car, which killed drivers with greater precision than earlier examples of German engineering killed GI’s.

The 917 wouldn’t stay on the road. Its lightweight aluminum spaceframe was barely enough to contain the immense power of the engine, an air-cooled flat twelve which began life with 580 naturally aspirated HP. Before that could happen, an engineer by the name of John Horsmann had to figure out a new tail configuration to make the car handle. These days, we have computers and wind tunnels to help, but back then, aerodynamics was Formula 1 guys sticking random wings on tall struts and Jim Hall hacking away at his Chaparrals in Texas. Horsmann’s version increased downforce at the expense of drag and the 917 Kurzheck—German for “short tail”— was born. This was the car that won the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, the stage for McQueen’s car nerd epic.

The 917 repeated its performance the next year before it was outlawed for 1972. Derek Bell, who would claim five victories with the 917’s successors, remembers in an article he wrote for the October 2008 issue of Octane:

Testing for the 1971 Le Mans, [Porsche chief race engineer Norbert] Singer asked me what revs I was pulling in the 917 down the Mulsanne Straight. I told him 8100rpm, which he said was a good thing because the engine would blow up at 8200rpm! That equated to 246 mph and we have never been quicker since.

The car would then cross the Atlantic to race in CanAm. With the addition of turbocharging it morphed into Moon rocket lunacy and became the Turbopanzer, also known as the 917/30, which made 1100 HP in race trim and won every race but one in the 1973 CanAm season. It retired at Talladega Superspeedway in 1975 with driver Mark Donohue—who had a week to live—taking it around the tri-oval in a 225 MPH blitz.

Yet ask people about the 917 on any side of the Atlantic and nobody remembers it anymore. Racing regulations and drivers have come and gone and Porsche has been away from Le Mans for a decade now. So why it the 917 still worth remembering? It was the last in a line of sports racers which were out to kill you, which pushed the performance envelope at the expense of safety and sanity, and when you swap your eyes with those of its driver, it still gives you a queasy, insane ride around Le Mans:

And remember: your toes, vulnerable little antennae, are in front of the front axle all the time. They get stuck in the aluminum bodywork as you wiggle for the brake pedal at the end of the Mulsanne at Mach 0.32.

Happy birthday, now, you big bad savage thing.

Photo Credit: Frank van de Velde, Porsche, edvvc

10.) Let's See How The CoT And This Here New Soft Wall Hold Up

A 2008 crash at Texas that proved to be the biggest test yet for the CoT and the new safer walls. Somehow Michael McDowell survived.

9.) Bristol Will Always Be A Car-Basher
Two clips, 12 years apart, show that Bristol will always have an appetite for destruction, no matter what changes you make.

8.) Biggest Wreck Ever
After this happened at Daytona in 1960, NASCAR realized that they had unleashed a whole new beast with their super-speedway. This may only rank eighth on the PopMech list, but it's our favorite. You just can't beat the combination of old jalopies, the ol'-timey-voiced commentary, and primitive "safety" precautions.

7.) The King Demands Window Nets

After "The King" Richard Petty's body flopped around out of his window during this crash in 1970, NASCAR decided that it was time to dictate the use of window nets. Long live The King.

6.) Why We Have Roof Flaps

These two clips show two big flippin' crahses by Rusty Wallace during the 1993 season, which eventually led to the creation of roof flaps that pop-up when the car is sliding backwards. They create downforce to keep the car planted on the ground and prevent cars from catching big X-Games-style air.

5.) Why We Now Have Pit Road Speed Limits

Mike Ritch was tragically killed when Ricky Rudd's car spun out of control in pit lane. To help prevent this from happening again, new pit lane speed limits were introduced.

4.) Why We Have Restrictor Plates
200MPH+ may be spectacular to watch, but there's no getting around the added danger of higher speeds. But isn't that the point of motorsport? To go as fast as possible, safety be damned? Well, no matter how we see it, NASCAR decided after this crash that something had to be done to reduce speeds.

3.) Fireball Roberts

A tragically ironic end to his life, Fireball Roberts died just the way his nickname implied. Fire-retardant safety gear took a step up after this, but the sport was never the same without his charisma.

2.) Rubbin' Is Racin'
The famous tangle up between Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough on network TV ensured that NASCAR would be prime entertainment fixture for years to come. We wish more drivers would get in fistfights nowadays.

1.) Yup, You Guessed It

The crash that will live in infamy.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said "The Obama campaign will not be sponsoring a car in the Sprint Cup Series, though we will continue to look for ways to reach out to voters and convey Senator Obama's message of change." We're not sure how carbureted pushrod V8 machines turning left all day for a crowd of flat-earth enthusiasts doesn't speak change, but that's why we just write about cars.

More likely, Team Obama decided its ad dollars would be better spent at venues where the senator had a better chance of attracting voters, such as Ducks Unlimited meets, Hummer enthusiast clubs and of course NRA rallies. Which is a shame, because we were all about Obama and McCain proxies drifting and bumping around Talladega, only to have Nader sneak through the slot and eke out the race win, but still lose in the total points tally. [Seattle Times]