By Jenna Fryer
The Associated Press

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Under relentless scrutiny for two straight years over safety precautions, NASCAR heads into the 2003 season with a new Research and Development Center, a handful of innovations and - most importantly - without a recent driver death. When the season opens Sunday with the Daytona 500, drivers will be safer than ever before.

But Gary Nelson, who as NASCAR's director of competition spearheads the safety effort, refuses to take satisfaction in the improved state of the 54-year-old stock-car series.

"When it comes to safety, we just cannot put our heels up and say `Look at how far we've come,"' Nelson said. "It's something that always has to be on the front burner, we always have to be working hard to make more and more gains. It's a never-ending process."

It's a different mindset for NASCAR, which was long criticized for resisting safety improvements. What was standard in open-wheel racing was ignored in the stock car series.

After Dale Earnhardt's fatal wreck in the Daytona 500 two years ago, the sanctioning body faced unprecedented attention. His death was the last for NASCAR's three main series, and it followed three fatalities the year before.

Since then, NASCAR has made significant improvements at its own pace, which has sometimes seemed like a crawl.

Data records are in cars, head and neck restraints are mandatory, and medical liaisons are on NASCAR's staff.

Outside experts are routinely consulted on various issues. In a recently begun practice, NASCAR meets with drivers twice a year to present its latest improvements and explain what the experts have learned.

"We have these seminars, we tape them so if a guy can't make it we can go over it with him later, and we approach it like, `Don't believe us because NASCAR says so and NASCAR knows everything. Believe it because these experts say so, and they can prove it,"' Nelson said.

The centerpiece of NASCAR's safety push is its Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. The 61,000-square-foot center opened in January and houses all of the ongoing projects.

Among the things being worked on:

- SAFER walls: The Steel and Foam Energy Reduction wall, also known as "soft" walls, absorb impact and have been installed in portions of the 2.5-mile tracks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. Barrier experts at the University of Nebraska, led by Dr. Dean Sicking, are looking at possible implementation at other tracks.

- Composite seats: The carbon-fiber seats are designed to make cars' cockpits safer. Not mandated, but Nelson said studies have proven the bendable seats are much safer than the stiff-as-board seats long believed to be most beneficial.

- Incident data recorders: Referred to as "black boxes," they are required on all cars in NASCAR's three national series. They are used to tabulate the G-force load drivers withstand upon impact and help reconstruct accidents.

The data recorded in 2002 was put into an "incident database" that provides an in-depth history of what drivers and cars experience during impact. They also serve as a guide for further safety enhancements.

But there are still areas NASCAR needs to improve.

The series has no mandatory baseline testing for concussions, as in CART, the Indy Racing League, and Formula One. Also, Rick Mast's recent retirement due to carbon monoxide poisoning sent NASCAR scrambling to find a way to clean the air its drivers breathe.

Concussions became a serious issue last season when Dale Earnhardt Jr. admitted that he drove for several weeks with what he thought was a concussion stemming from a crash. Following the revelation. NASCAR mandated that drivers undergo any tests recommended by track physicians.

Open-wheel series require drivers to take Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing, a 20-minute exam on a laptop computer that measures brain processing, memory and motor skills.

The results of that preseason test provide a baseline that a driver must match if he suffers a head injury in competition later in the year.

The test is not mandatory in NASCAR, but some drivers take it on their own.

"I think a neuro-psych test should be part of our physical at the beginning of the year," said Steve Park, who missed five months after suffering a brain injury in a 2001 wreck.

"Then again, I don't think it's NASCAR's decision that it should be a requirement. But it should be on the shoulders of everybody who races to have this done."