Injured Fan, 17, Leaves Alabama Hospital

For Blake Bobbitt, 187 laps of last Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway were pretty much the same as the rest of the 142,000 fans on hand -- fast and exciting. Then, on the lap 188, Carl Edwards' No. 99 flew into the catch fence in front of her, ripping apart and spewing a chunk of metal into her face and shattering her jaw.

Talk about a bad experience at your first NASCAR race.

The 17-year-old Bobbitt was released from a Birmingham, Ala., hospital Wednesday according to the Associated Press, but not before having her jaw wired shut for up to six weeks, said a Florence, Ala., newspaper.

Bobbitt's father Terry was interviewed in the article and talked about seeing the wreck start to happen and trying to first warn then protect his daughter.

Terry Bobbitt said he pointed toward Edwards' car to alert his daughter as the vehicle flipped across the track.

"I pointed down the track and, all in that same motion, I grabbed her and took her down to the ground," [Bobbitt] said. "I covered her, and the only thing I didn't get covered was the side of her face that got hit. Nothing hit me. I couldn't believe anything even hit her."

Blake Bobbitt was knocked unconscious, Emma Bobbitt said. "They immediately got her on the backboard and took her to the medical house there and flew her out."

She said her daughter doesn't remember the wreck.

"She just remembers standing up to see the last lap," Emma Bobbitt said. "Everybody's talked about it so much since then that she's starting to put the pieces together."

That's definitely some pretty scary stuff, and from the sound of it both Blake and her father were lucky nothing more serious happened. That's not to say, of course, that a broken jaw is just a bump or a bruise -- especially for a high school senior preparing to graduate in the next few weeks.

The article said that Bobbitt went through a long reconstructive surgery on her lower jaw on Monday and that Edwards called her to apologize for the incident, and even added that he himself has broken his jaw before and understands the associated problems.

Fortunately, Bobbitt is expected to fully recover from her injuries despite more scheduled surgeries. However, its probably going to be a hard sell for her to ever attend a NASCAR race again -- which is a part NASCAR needs to recognize.

Having fans get hurt is just simply not a "part of the game" as many folks have argued in the past few days. People won't come to race tracks anymore, let alone buy up the cheap seats that are the lowest and closest to the action if they think there's a realistic possibility of injury.

Do accidents happen? Sure they do. But to think that there's nothing else anyone can do to keep potential lifelong fans like Blake Bobbitt from getting hurt is close-minded at best and ignorant at worst.