CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The death of Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon has sparked safety discussions throughout motorsports just as NASCAR heads to one of the fastest tracks on its circuit.

With Wheldon’s death — he was killed in a spectacular 15-car accident Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — comes intense scrutiny from a curious public that’s often entertained by the crashes and multiple car pileups. Just last weekend, the crowd at Charlotte Motor Speedway roared with approval when five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson wrecked hard into the wall.

Now NASCAR, which has made significant safety improvements in the 10 years since its last fatal accident, heads to Talladega Superspeedway. The 2.66-mile speedway is four lanes wide, has 33 degrees of banking in the turns and, like sister track Daytona International Speedway, has long been noted as a place where “the big one” can happen in the blink of an eye.

“Talladega — it’s fast, it’s high-banked and we all know what we’re in for when we go there,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition, earlier this week.

NASCAR requires the use of horsepower-sapping restrictor plates at both Daytona and Talladega in an effort to curb speeds that can hit 200 mph. Bill Elliott holds NASCAR’s all-time qualifying record with a lap of 212 mph in 1987, the same race in which Bobby Allison was nearly killed when his car flew into the fence.

Restrictor plates were mandated at Daytona and Talladega that season.

The track also was the site of a frightening 2009 accident involving Carl Edwards, the current Sprint Cup Series points leader.