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To use the words of the late David Poole, Dale Earnhardt saved Elliott Sadler’s life on Sunday.

What happened to Elliott Sadler on the backstretch (between turns one and two) late in the race at Pocono isn’t exactly clear to those of us who didn’t happen to be in a car and on the backstretch at the time (thanks Kurt Busch and ESPN). What we do know though is Pocono needs to make safety upgrades, like yesterday, and the COT and HANS Device saved Elliott Sadler from serious injury or death.

From what I saw of that wreck, it was one of the worst in recent memory. After hitting the inside Armco barrier, Sadler was propelled back out onto the track – a distance that’s probably a good 50 feet. In the slow motion replay on ESPN, Sadler’s whole body can be seen lurching forward. That tremendous amount of force ripped the car apart. See the engine being towed back to the garage. Sadler was luckily able to walk away with nothing but the wind knocked out of him.

For all of the criticism its gotten and complaining that’s been done about it, the COT has been a wonderful safety innovation. It has no doubt saved lives. Ask Micheal McDowell. Now ask Elliott Sadler.

Add to that the proliferation of the HANS Device and the SAFER barriers and NASCAR has become a much safer place to compete.

In the days leading up to the race, Pocono President Brandon Igdalsky, grandson of the Drs. Mattioli, addressed plans for some much needed safety features, including SAFER barriers between turns 1 and 2, and 2 and 3, and a much needed catch fence. It’s about time.

Looking around on the net Sunday night some were suggesting Pocono shouldn’t be on the schedule. I couldn’t disagree more. It’s a unique facility with great fans (though two races seven weeks apart is ridiculous). I do think though the track needed to have made these upgrades before other things were done – say for instance a $16 million solar farm.

It’s certainly easy to play Monday morning quarterback on this – but I think anyone who has ever seen the facility can see there are a lot of upgrades that need be done. As usual I digress.

Who knows what would have happened to Sadler had he not had the benefit of the current safety features. I shutter to think. Through all the complaining about ESPN missing the moment (big deal), the biggest story here is what didn’t happen and what we fortunately didn’t see.

What NASCAR has done since February 2001 truly has made the sport safer. There have been no serious injuries and no deaths. And thankfully on Sunday we were able to keep that record intact.

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The state of traditional media, print, broadcast or otherwise, throughout the United States is at best rocky right now, at worst, it’s at death’s door. While many would argue the reports of the demise of traditional media are overstated or exaggerated, one thing is for sure, it ain’t like it used to be.

The number of “traditional” media covering NASCAR every weekend are rapidly declining. The use of AP wire stories and advent of Internet news sites has made the costly coverage of NASCAR unnecessary. The death of newspapers and cost cutting in media has aided that decline and become the new normal.

That new normal became disturbingly clear on Tuesday as Street and Smith’s shut down the venerable NASCAR Scene. The weekly publication which had been around since 1977 under one name or another was a standard among fans and a mainstay in the garage.

Unfortunately Street and Smith’s could no longer make NASCAR Scene (or turn SceneDaily.com into) a profitable product for their business.

This move left some of the most experienced and well-respected journalists in the garage without jobs and the sport without a few of its biggest advocates. While certainly some will find jobs elsewhere, nothing on the horizon will fill the void being left by Scene.

Last spring I wrote on here about the Future of NASCAR Media. What that future is, is still hard to say. We lost David Poole last spring and his spot at the Charlotte Observer was never really filled. While Jim Utter has become the lead motorsports reporter for the paper, he has other responsibilities, including covering the UNC Charlotte 49ers. Now NASCAR Scene is gone and SceneDaily.com will no doubt become a scaled back version of its former self.

Though some traditional media in the form of ESPN and FoxSports among others remain entrenched in the sport, the burden is increasingly falling to new media. The problem that medium faces though is a familiar one to those trying to keep traditional publications afloat: how to monetize them effectively. It’s a shame Street and Smith’s couldn’t find a way to make SceneDaily.com their profitable vehicle.

Tuesday was a sad day for the sport. The NASCAR Scene reporters were/are among the best. They brought experience and expertise and a consistent outlet for news and information. Here’s hoping they all land on their feet (preferably somewhere in the garage before Daytona).

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Dan, if you’re reading this (which I doubt you are) we need you.

OK, maybe not Dan per se, I doubt he’s too interested in becoming a member of the NASCAR press corps (though if he is…), but this sport could really use someone like him.

You’re probably asking yourself at this point, “what the heck are you talking about?” For those of you who aren’t avid listeners of Dan, i’ll explain.

The former ESPN Sportscenter anchor and current host of his own sports talk radio show, writer for Sports Illustrated and co-host of Football Night in America is arguably one of the most prominent sportscasters in the game.

Daily on the Dan Patrick Show you’ll find a guy not afraid to ask tough questions to the biggest names in the business and certainly not afraid to press them when they dodge those questions (when he’s not playing Mike Wallace, he, Pauly, Fritzy, Seton and McLovin are pretty entertaining too).

Dan recently had BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock on and he asked him why there wasn’t a playoff system. When Hancock waltzed around the questions Dan pressed him. Eventually he got an answer out of him.

NBA commissioner David Stern was a guest not long ago and Dan asked him about Tim Donaghy. He was able to respectfully press Stern on what is a very controversial issue and got Stern to move, if only slightly, off script.

My point with this is, Dan Patrick is able to do what few can do: conduct a good, but difficult interview and emerge with mutual respect intact. He’s able and unafraid to ask tough questions without pissing off the person he’s interviewing.

Now I know what you’re saying, “Journo, why don’t you fill this role?” Well, I’ll be frank with you, I’m no Dan Patrick and as much as I’d like to be I don’t think I ever will. That doesn’t mean someone else can’t fill this role.

I think the NASCAR press is severely lacking someone who is unafraid (there are a lot of people that fit into this category) AND able (not so much here) to conduct difficult interviews with NASCAR’s power players. Too often the sport’s reporters tip-toe around things or don’t press things so as not to effect their existing relationships (who wants to get locked out?).

We need someone who is not afraid to call out NASCAR when there’s a problem and force the issue when necessary (David Poole was about as close as we had to this). I guess what we need is a reporter who is a celebrity in their right and has the clout when necessary (they need to be untouchable). As talented as many of the members of the press corps are, we just don’t have anyone that fills this role right now.

So Dan, if you’re interested we’d welcome you with open arms (or at least I would).