NASCAR is considering the possibility of new safety precautions, but this time it’s for the fans, not the drivers.

During the last lap of Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway, the race for the finish was intense, to say the least. Looking like crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was going to win the race, with Ryan Newman drafting behind him, Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski passed the two cars on the outside halfway to the finish line. The race came down to Edwards and Keselowski, and Keselowski spun out Edwards to win the first race of his career in the Sprint Cup Series.

The danger escalated when Keselowski bumped Edwards, whose car spun toward the wall and then was hit by Newman’s car, which caused Edwards to go slightly airborne while veering toward the grandstand. Edwards, who got out of the car injury-free, scraped the fence, sending pieces of the fence and the car flying into the crowd. Seven spectators were injured, with one woman suffering severe jaw damage.

So now, just like with the addition of nets in hockey and baseball to help protect fans from flying pucks or baseballs, NASCAR is faced with how to protect fans from flying cars.

For those of you not-so-fanatic NASCAR fans, Talladega is one of the fastest, if not THE fastest, in the NASCAR schedule. The track is a restrictor plate race, which lowers the maximum speed the cars can get up to. Even with these, the cars still reach speeds of 200 miles per hour. In the past few years, NASCAR has added roof flaps to the cars, which are released when the cars turn sideways or backwards to prevent them from going airborne. Driver safety has increased tremendously since Dale Earnhardt, Sr.’s death at Daytona in 2001, as drivers have been able to walk away from some terrible crashes.

So what should NASCAR do to protect fan safety? The walls, barriers and fences are stronger than they have ever been, so do you push fans back a few more feet from the track? Fans love being up close and personal with the track; that is a whole part of the experience. So even though a situation happens like this once in a blue moon, is it enough to change every track’s seating charts?

As Carl Edwards said in his post-race interview, I am sure things will stay the same until someone is killed. The balance between fans enjoying the race and getting seriously injured needs to be addressed, especially at tracks like Daytona and Talladega, where big crashes and cars flying are more common.

Everyone is all for having fun and getting close to the action until a tragedy happens. Let’s avoid this tragedy and make sure fans can enjoy the race without having to worry about their lives.