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Atlanta Motor Speedway adds protective barriers for this weekend’s NASCAR races

57th Annual Daytona 500

57th Annual Daytona 500

Getty Images

Atlanta Motor Speedway announced Tuesday that it will add tire barriers to the inside wall in Turn 4 and extend the protective wall at the exit of pit road before this weekend’s NASCAR races.

Track officials announced the moves will provide 130 linear feet of additional protective barriers. They also announced that a review on installing additional SAFER barriers will come after this weekend. The NASCAR Sprint Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series each will race there this weekend.

Track safety has grown paramount after Kyle Busch’s car slammed into a concrete wall on the inside of Turn 1 at Daytona International Speedway and he suffered multiple broken bones. Busch spent a third night in a Daytona Beach, Fla., hospital Monday recovering.

Joie Chitwood, president of Daytona International Speedway, vowed that track officials will ensure that SAFER barriers will be “on every inch at this property. This is not going to happen again.’’

The steel-and-foam barriers absorb the energy in an accident to lessen the chance of a driver’s injury.

Because there wasn’t enough time to install SAFER barriers last weekend, Daytona International Speedway officials had tire barriers placed in front of the inside wall Busch hit.