Hans device used by Jeff Gordon at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2008

HANS device is a black, U-shaped piece of equipment used in the sport of auto racing to minimize head trauma during a crash. Jeff Gordon used this HANS device during a race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 2008 and attributes it with saving his life that day.

The Head and Neck Supportive Device, or HANS Device was invented in the early 1980s by Dr. Robert Hubbard (1943-2019), a biomechanical engineering professor at Michigan State University. Hubbard began designing his device after his brother, Jim Downing, an American road racer, lost a fellow racer to a skull fracture in a racing accident. The basilar skull fracture is a common injury in auto racing an often results in serious injury or death due to the force of movement and momentum placed on the head and neck while the body remains in place through the use of seatbelts. Hubbard’s device provides support for the head and neck in these types of high-speed collisions. Hubbard produced his first prototype in 1985 but it wasn’t until 1989 that his device was manufactured and only after he and Jim Downing formed Hubbard Downing Inc. and developed it themselves. The auto racing community resisted the device complaining that it was too restrictive and uncomfortable but after many deaths due to skull fractures, especially high-profile racers such as Dale Earnhardt Sr., NASCAR mandated the use of the HANS device in 2001while Formula One racing followed suit in 2003.

Jeff Gordon began racing quarter midget cars at age 5 and in 1991, he won rookie of the year driving the Carolina Ford Dealers car and the next year racing the Nestle Baby Ruth car, he won at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and was noticed by Rick Hendrick. Gordon became a member of Hendricks Motorsports, one of racing’s premier racing teams. Gordon would go on to become one of the best drivers in NASCAR history. He is 3rd on the all-time win list and has earned 93 NASCAR victories. He is a four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion for the years 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001. He won the Daytona 500 in 1997, 1999 and in 2005. He was a five-time Brickyard 500 winner for the years 1994, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2014 and a 7-time winner at Darlington Raceway, in 1995, the spring and fall of 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2007.

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