Attendees at the NSC Congress & Expo Monday morning listened to NASCAR driver Kyle Petty discuss safety in driving as well as his personal life.

Petty spoke about deaths in the sport, as well as the death of his son, Adam, and said “NASCAR and the entire industry said we have to proactive; we have to hang up our game.

“Safety never takes a holiday.”

He also discussed some of NASCAR’s newer safety technologies for both its drivers and cars.

“We looked at where we were as a company and what we could do to make our sport better,” Petty said.

Related to Petty’s NASCAR-themed speech, NSC President and CEO Deborah Hersman mentioned the NSC’s commitment to “race to zero” and goal of eliminating preventable deaths in our lifetime.

Hersman also emphasized the importance of combatting fatigue on the job, likening it to driving while impaired. She said people often don’t think of tired driving as impaired driving and that needs to change.

“Racing to zero means we can’t just address the obvious hazards in our environment; we have to understand the human being and understand what’s draining our batteries,” she said. “Racing to zero means we have to be ready to take on new challenges. And this week, I want to ask you all, instead of running on empty, make sure you fill up your tanks.”