Talladega day after thoughts: Does plate racing need to change?
Welcome to a Monday afternoon version of our post-race thoughts post. While we were busy for most of Sunday we had a chance to watch most of the race and spin the past hours trying to process the craziness that took place at Talladega.
• It’s not correct to say that everyone wants the racing at Talladega to change. But there’s a fair majority that does, right?
We’ll admit, restrictor plate racing is the perfect hook for NASCAR. Cars are door-to-door for the majority of the race and the close proximity is thrilling television for newbies or those who aren’t die-hard fans of the sport. If you were getting a friend to watch NASCAR for the first time, odds are both Daytona and Talladega are in your top five options.
But for as wild and unpredictable the racing may be – let’s be honest, the Cup Series needs unpredictability – Sunday’s race left us wondering for solutions after watching two too many cars tumble through the air on the backstretch.
It’s possible for something infinitely exciting, unpredictable and crazy to also be incredibly dangerous and in need of change. Is the Cup Series nearing that point of change?
• We’re not engineers, so we’re not sure how, exactly, to prevent cars from flipping over as much as possible. But it’s hard not to think that removing the restrictor plates off the engines could be a viable solution.
The removal of the plates, which choke horsepower and acceleration and lead to the giant packs that are on display at both Daytona and Talladega, would have to come with other changes. But what if NASCAR was able to rig the rules to where the engines were unrestricted but the cars were stripped of a lot of front and rear downforce?
That lack of downforce could not only cut speed but potentially force drivers to lift off the gas in the corners. Cars would be going faster than they do now in packs, but the packs would be far thinner with handling and horsepower at a premium.
Are we off base? Again, we don’t know for sure. But it needs to be examined.
• The counter-point to removing the restrictor plates is the reason the plates were implemented in the first place. During a 1988 race at Talladega, Bobby Allison’s car went airborne by itself and flew into the catchfence. The vicious wreck helped lead to the type of racing that we see now.
Eliminating restrictor plates doesn’t eliminate the risk of cars flying through the air. There may be nothing that does. But by breaking up packs, the chances for cars flying through the air would seemingly go down. Why? Well, with less cars clustered together, there are fewer chances for the impacts (in the quarterpanels) that have forced cars to take flight over the past few years.
And besides, should we really be using a nearly-30-year-old example as a reason for why restrictor plates are still needed? NASCAR safety has advanced incredibly since then and especially in the last 15 years. Things are not how they used to be, and how they used to be should not be seen as a direct comparison of what things could be.
• Thank goodness Danica Patrick hit a SAFER-protected barrier (Kevin Harvick too).
• We wondered for a brief second if Matt Kenseth’s car was going to hit the infield catchfence on the backstretch. Thankfully he didn’t, and he narrowly avoided his car’s windshield hitting the top edge of the inside wall.
And damn, Kenseth is going to string together some good finishes soon.
• Imagine if someone had passed race-winner Brad Keselowski between the time of the race’s final crash and the finish line.
A day earlier the sanctioning body threw the caution flag before the finish line as a wreck enveloped the field in the tri-oval. Joey Logano spun as he was blocking Elliott Sadler and caused a giant crash and Sadler, who sustained damage in the incident, was named the winner despite not crossing the finish line first (Brennan Poole did).
NASCAR said the field was frozen at the moment of caution because of the crash. And that’s the correct application of the caution rule, though there are multiple instances (like the 2007 Daytona 500) when lead drivers were allowed to race to the finish line as a crash happened behind.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
