Just say the name ‘Green Hell’ and the eyes of that one motorsport fan in the room will light up. But what you will notice in that glimmer is not only awe and love, but also the fear of something terrifying that awaits. And Kenny Wallace recently got a firsthand experience of it all. His 6-lap journey around the ‘Green Hell’ was as shocking as it could’ve been, reminding him of a particular legend among others who lost their lives there.

“Remember Nikki Lau, the great Formula 1 racer? He’s all burned up. That happened right there at Nurburg Ring. Nikki lost it coming around there. Now they nickname it the Lau links. He’s wrecked and the whole racetrack is got blind spots,” said Wallace.

A racecar driver puts their life on the line for chasing speeds around any racetrack. So why is Nurburgring the one that scares them the most? To answer that, let’s look at the metrics surrounding this track. It is said that nearly 4-5 people die every year at the Nurburgring. It sounds crazy because there have been hardly 4-5 deaths on track during the entire decade of any major motorsports series recently.

And that is because of the very peculiar characteristics of this track. Narrow asphalt, long straights into blind turns; guardrails separating you from the forest of pain; elevation changes that hit you when you don’t expect; and no runoffs to save you from the slight mistakes. Yes, the ‘Green Hell’ is the exact opposite of every safety measure that motorsports stand for currently.

That’s exactly why Kenny Wallace had to describe the consequences of not being aware at the track brutally. “You’re wide open. You come up around this hill and you’re thinking you’re hauling a** and all of a sudden there’s somebody parked right in the middle of the racetrack and you center punch him.”

That’s the analogy he derived from one of the worst crashes in motorsports history. Niki Lauda’s crash at Nurburgring is still a haunting reminder of the fact that this track does not like being toyed with. Lauda’s crash nearly ended up killing him and permanently disfigured him. No wonder Sir Jackie Stewart had to coin the term ‘Green Hell.’

The Nurburgring is a track that every race car fears to approach. While the audience was excited about Kenny Wallace being the first NASCAR driver ever to lap the Nürburgring, for Wallace there was no point in taking a risk in a rented BMW passenger car.

Not only that, the business owner of Ron Simmons Racing, Ron Simmons, who rented him the car, was similarly not interested in letting Wallace set any world records. “Kenny, remember this about Nurburgring. It kills four to five people a year, and it just doesn’t matter. Your lap time and how you go just don’t matter.” In the end, Wallace was so scared that he did not want to continue with his 6-lap package.

By the end of his track tour, Wallace did reach a top speed of 147 miles per hour. That might be record-breaking or exhilarating considering the feats he has achieved in a stock car, but it was good enough for him. The Nurburgring was an experience, not a challenge. Kenny Wallace did his best to respect the track and its terrifying legacy.

In the end, he had a harsh but important reality check for the fans.

Kenny Wallace warns wannabe ‘record breakers’

When an average person thinks about visiting the racetrack, they always dream of conquering the twists and turns and hit the finish line with a shine on their visor as they break the lap record. Unfortunately, the Nurburgring does not entertain such ideas.

First of all, the track package is such that multiple cars line up at once and take a tour of the 13-mile-long track. Not only that, once a car ends up crashing out, they immediately red flag the session and do not allow any cars to lap the circuit. All these safety measures are present to mitigate crashes arising from risky behavior.

As Wallace aptly adds, “So they kill everybody at the racetrack because you’re trying to be you; you think you’re Lewis Hamilton. You think you’re Kimmy Antonelli. 

“You think you’re Max Verstappen and you’re flying around there and to this day you’re like, ‘Oh man, I’m going to set a record.’ You come up over the hill, and there’s somebody spun out right there, and you center-punch him and kill him.”

His explanation may seem slightly graphic, but it shouldn’t distract us from the fact that 200 people have lost their lives trying to conquer the Nurburgring. There’s no way any racing driver will take it seriously unless their entire career is on the line. And fans should follow the suit and be calm while trying to challenge such venues.