Since the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin in separate crashes at New Hampshire International Speedway, the track has been a focal point for NASCAR’s continuing discussion about safety issues.

Before the race in September 2000 the year Petty and Irwin were killed several drivers criticized NASCAR for not having some kind of energy-absorbing barrier in front of the track’s outside walls.

A Worker installs a SAFER Barrier used during the 2002 Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. NASCAR officials say more testing is needed before the barrier can be used at other tracks.

As the Winston Cup circuit returns to New Hampshire this weekend, two years after the crash in which Irwin died, there still have been no changes to the track’s walls.

But in two weeks, when the circuit goes to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Winston Cup cars will race on a track with a new generation of “soft wall,” called the SAFER barrier, in its four turns.

New Hampshire International Speedway owner Bob Bahre has said he will install a SAFER system at his track as soon as he gets approval from NASCAR, but the sanctioning body is proceeding cautiously. NASCAR, which has worked with the Indy Racing League and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on developing the system, says more testing is needed before the SAFER barrier can be used at other tracks.

“We’d always like for it to be quicker,” driver Dale Jarrett said of implementing the energy-absorbing walls. “It’s just like we’d like to find something that would make us a tenth of a second faster right off the bat, but those things are hard to come by.

“Whenever you’re really fine-tuning, which is basically what they’re doing right now, you want to make sure that you don’t create a bigger hazard or more of an injury, and you have to appreciate that. …You don’t want them to put it up there and say, ‘Well, we think this will be better.’

“You have to really commend NASCAR and everyone working in this area for waiting until they have everything exactly like they want it before we start it at other racetracks for that very reason.”

Almost every Winston Cup team has now tested at Indianapolis, getting their first up-close look at the SAFER system. Nobody wants to be the first to test the barrier in a 3,500-pound Winston Cup car, of course, but the results from this year’s Indianapolis 500 certainly looked promising.

Robby Gordon raced in the Indy 500 and teammate P.J. Jones was in one of the cars that crashed into the barrier.

“He got his car turned around going into Turn 1 and backed it into the barrier,” Gordon said. “(With) the speed he was going and the angle he hit, it did flick him back across the track, but the G-load was not that big. It didn’t even break the gearbox on the car, and he backed it in.”

Despite the promising signs, however, it seems that most Winston Cup drivers are willing to wait until everyone is confident the SAFER barrier is the right system before demanding to see its widespread use.

“They’re looking for perfection and we should appreciate that,” Jarrett said. “I think NASCAR and everyone working in this area has done a good job helping us get to this point. I know there is still a lot of work to do.”

Jeff Burton said the process of expanding the SAFER system or anything like it to other tracks will be gradual.

“I think production will be an issue because they’re afraid to produce product right now not knowing that it’s what we’re going to be able to use,” he said. “Getting it up is a pretty quick process, once you get the product.”

Burton says that he hopes energy-absorbing barriers will be installed as quickly as possible on a track-to-track basis as confidence increases. He sees no need to wait, for example, to delay installation on low-banked tracks until the system can be adapted for use at high-banked tracks.

“If we have something that’s out there for us that has had a reasonable amount of testing and we have a reasonable amount of confidence in it, we need to have it and have it now,” Jeff Burton said. “There’s no need to wait.

“There are some legitimate concerns about putting it on a banked racetrack and hitting it with a 3,500-pound car. I think we will have confidence in it at one type of racetrack before we do at others. We shouldn’t wait to get confidence in it for everywhere before we put it up at places where we do.

“The second that we feel comfortable with it, we need to have it. Any delay with it is unacceptable.”