Larry Pollard's Escape From Death At Dover

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
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[@knowprosports]

Not very often I learn something new about drivers who sustained this injury, but I never heard of Larry.. great job as always

[@brianbooher7318]

he was once richard pettys crew cheif an harry gants son in law then decided to drive race cars an about died

[@streetcarmedia660]

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!

[@rolux4853]

Wow that’s amazing! Tell him he has a fan over here in Germany, he is a legend!

[@klk1900]

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.

[@danielfoster3642]

I never heard of Larry Pollard before. What a miraculous story.

[@donhickman9345]

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!

[@MrGoombasticveryFantastic]

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

[@waynemargetish7953]

good to see this many local guys from Western Speedway have gone on to NASCAR

[@dylanross8311]

This is wild. Western speedway is my local track that just unfortunately closed down

[@Foxracing218]

Beautiful video man great work!

[@dwaynejones2297]

Larry is a super cool guy we met a year ago And stay in touch

[@Stu40sx]

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.

[@racefan32]

My home track too.

[@cententcymbalsusa1590]

Earl Ross, Ross Surgenor, Doug Gold are a few others that raced Western and made NASCAR/ARCA starts.

[@extragoogleaccount6061]

So many tracks closing :(

[@briantaylor9285]

Lucky man. What's so insidious about basilar skull fracture is HOW it kills: massive hemorrhage.

[@klk1900]

So that all depends on the velocity loss. I’ve had friends killed from minor BSF that died from choking on blood. And others died from the spinal cord and nerves being severed. So no electrical signals could reach the heart or lungs. So I’ve seen those two. In 1999 I had a serious 175g hit which put me out. -- remember a basilar skull fracture is caused by the brain itself. When you impact, the car decels, the torso decels, the head continues at speed. So whatever velocity loss you have. That difference is how fast the 3lb brain gets yanked into the base of the skull. I think our trauma surgeons all did photo analysis. On dales incident he lost between 36-42mph of velocity in 2milliseconds. So not a very high velocity loss. I had a 115mph velocity loss but the angle The gforces were pushing out. The roof of the car stopped my head. It fractured my skull but it stopped me from having a BSF. -- my best friend was killed from blowing a right front and I was at the car within 35-45 seconds. I literally had blood, brain matter, spinal fluid, bone marrow, urine boiling on the floor Pan or floor board of the car. (Because it was 220*+ since we had been driving wide open 2hrs). I’ll never forget that smell. I still gag anytime I think about it. -- so you can’t ever be sure.minor ones you will die from the blood. Severe ones you will died from the spinal cord disconnecting.

[@miopazzotoddly]

Very well put together. Thanks. A great watch.

[@racingmurman]

Earl Ross and Reg Kennedy are other notable Canadian stock car drivers.

[@artmccartan4911]

Great storytelling

[@GregBrownsWorldORacing]

I vaguely remember him. I didn't know he survived this injury =or= of his facility in Taylorsville.

[@avgeekviggi8360]

I mean... Daniel Suárez is not American and he won on three oval tracks in the Xfinity series in 2016 and won the championship....

[@6Humanity6Is6Doomed]

Ok… and?

[@chuckiefinster544]

But not the first

[@mtsachs]

​@@6Humanity6Is6Doomedand video said Pollard is the only one to do so, which isn't true. just a correction.

[@Grindtone603]

Didn't Ron Fellows also win a NASCAR race as well?

[@crystaljon]

@@Grindtone603 Never won an OVAL race in NASCAR.

[@saramccarty3921]

love these videos!

[@RIVERLORD-bf7uc]

It is Harry GANT. Not Harry Grant

[@shanew.williams]

Haha, i caught that too. And let's not forget car owner "Hubbard" (Hubert) Hensley, lol.

[@toddfowler4017]

I'm a big Harry Gant fan! Thanks for the video, I found it very informative! I notice you called Gant Grant a couple of times, that's okay, nobody's perfect. Besides, I can hear Harry saying "I've been called worse than that! I wish NASCAR would pull their collective heads out of their asses and put Harry in The Hall Of Fame where he belongs!! So Harry, Larry, Debbie, Donna, and of course Peggy can enjoy the honor!!33/7

[@racingmurman]

The photos of Roy Smith in the 11 car are from Langley Speedway in Langley BC Canada and the photographer is Brent Martin.

[@racingmurman]

That was a scheduled race for the winston west series but it got rained out.

[@tylerbarth3113]

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.

[@nascarfan4888JJ]

I am unfamiliar with your blog. Maybe the name would ring a bell? But I get video ideas from comments, some databases, and just going down research rabbit holes. But most videos, like this one, was a request from a comment.

[@tylerbarth3113]

@@nascarfan4888JJ Gotcha. I do the "Influential Moments" blog. I did an article on Pollard awhile back, and recently did an article on the racing school crash at Kentucky. I'm not accusing you of anything, you've got a lot of great information - I just find it kinda funny lol...perhaps this is just life telling me to get back to blogging. In any case, keep it up!

[@nascarfan4888JJ]

Oh cool- I’ve definitely came across your blog before. Enjoy the articles a lot! I’ve done some reading before on the survival stories you’ve wrote. Definitely get back into it man!

[@shanew.williams]

Pollard was on a fine podcast on The Scene Vault. He tells his whole life story including the accident & rehab.

[@chrisdavis743]

Great video.

[@shanew.williams]

People unfamiliar with racing don't realize how sudden of a "stop", i've had my laced up driving shoes jerked off my feet. The torso is held secure with belts of course but hands, feet, arms & legs go flying about the cockpit of the car. The heavy human skull AND helmet are several lbs. unsecured weight that basal fracture is the person's head being jerked right off the end of their spine (sadly,just soft tissue keeps it from rolling off in the floor.

[@jimknowlton342]

7:16 is where the topic of this video begins to be addressed.

[@last_american445]

Jerry Nadeau also made it thru post 2001 era

[@billcary30]

without looking it up in my old documents, i think if they used the original chase championship style (04 chase format) he's one of the few changes in busch series where somone other than the real champ would be changed. i think it was him cause i'm like who?

[@kpkp2655]

Pollard race track is closed :(

[@Thierrynascarandarca]

Omg how did he escape

[@tgs2141]

“Only Non-American to win on a oval in the Xfinty series” Daniel Suarez?

[@cseabrook3]

Harry GANT!!

[@bikerjimbob]

I wonder if Bubba Pollard is his son?

[@dwaynejones2297]

He’s not but he’s does have a son that runs late models

[@lesmawson7298]

@@dwaynejones2297 I think you will find that Larry is too old to be Bubba’ Son

[@racefan32]

No relation

[@EvanPapineau]

First viewer

[@HemiSlant6828]

Second commenter

[@greggwgiddensable]

Bro.... There is no Harry Grant. I'm kinda stunned that u kept saying that. It's GANT. For real?

[@tgs2141]

He was saying Gant

[@ryanwinkelman1781]

Might wanna get your hearing checked

[@ryanwinkelman1781]

I stand corrected. He said "Gant" the first 3-4 times but at around 9:45 he actually did say "Grant"

[@tgs2141]

@@ryanwinkelman1781 one time…….that’s it

[@ryanwinkelman1781]

@@tgs2141 maybe that's the only time he noticed and just assumed he said grant all the other times as well? I'm pretty sure it was just a 1 time mistake. These things happen. I met Handsome Harry at Michigan one time around 94-95. I was only about 10 years old and Harry hadn't been retired but maybe a year or 2 so I was all star struck being in the presence of the man who drove the Skoal Bandit so I just kinda froze up. My dad talked with him for a solid 5 minutes though. He was just a down to earth cool and likable guy that could talk to anybody. He was at a booth signing autographs kinda off by himself. I don't think people realized he was there otherwise they would have been lined up.

[@NicholleChristineEdwards]

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