The fix is in, except when it comes to the real problems. Talladega again proof NASCAR faced with serious issues.
Silence not only won’t be golden; it might eventually turn deadly.
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Having everyone more evenly matched and slowed down makes them more likely to wreck.. Brilliant!
If I wanted to see a Demolition Derby, I’ll go to the county fair. The end of that race was pretty rough.
I was at the Dallas Motor Speedway several years back when Ryan flipped like that before (I think it was his second year driving). Another wreck where you know if someone is fine after that, it is pretty amazing engineering.
Rocket man just can't keep it on the ground.
a writer asks .. ‘Wha’ happ’n, Miguel?
I’m with Jimmy Johnson (and many others) on this one. Knock the banking down to 18 or 20 degrees and they’ll slow down or crash.
The formula makes for much higher speeds at Michigan and California but slower averages without the big crashes.
I say dump the restrictor plates and run narrower tires with a less grippy compound.
My answer to Dega is here... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2373259/posts?page=680#680
195 MPH? How DO you keep a car on the ground at that speed if it starts to flip up? The Cessna airplanes I used to fly had a lower Never Exceed speed!
I watched the better part of that race. It was the first NASCAR race I’ve seen in decades (since they used to be called stock cars not restrictor plate race cars). What a boring joke.
It seemed like my little Porsche 924 would fall off that 30 degree banking at Daytona when I competed in autocrosses in the late 70s. It’s awesome! You can barely stand up on a slope like that. To ski on a 30 degree slope you need to be Olympic caliber.
I just don’t like Dega or Daytona. They provide some spectacular crashes (and dangerous), but the racing and placing is a crap-shoot. You can be in the lead in one lap and lose 10-15 spots before the finish of that lap. You can hang around the back all day and make a run for it toward the end. JJ is probably one of the best drivers out there, but he advanced in points strictly on luck. It’s not like he had to race anybody to do it. Restrictor tracks are all about being in the right place at the right time.
I want to be the bad boy here, I am a very big NASCAR fan and I just did a re-play of sundays race and I am beginning to think “outside the box” on this,
No restrictions at all.
Drivers can use anything that will fit on the chassis, wings, spoilers, even 6 wheels like the Tyrell.
Make it the one track that has no restrictions, let technology advance.
Sometimes nascar bugs the crap out of me. Why dont they just put a dog leg in the back straight let the motors breath and stop whining about having to really drive the cars?
Wondering if Ryan Newman would be here today had he not landed on Kevin Harvick’s car?
The race is exciting... but broken.
When this highly dangerous race is decided by not who is the most skillful, but who is luckiest, it’s broken.
Restrictor plate racing is a lot like liberal policy. It results in the exact opposite of the stated intent. By restricting the speed, the cars race in huge dangerous packs.
start rant>
I think that Talledega is not at all the reason why viewship is down; instead, coverage for Nascar is terrible. When baseball shows stats, analyzes how batter A does against pitcher B, allowing even the novice viewer to understand how a matchup is important.
I’ve been watching Nascar for 3-4 years and I still don’t understand some of the subtleties. The commentators don’t analyze the situation so much as describe what we’re seeing on the screen. A monkey could do that.
Instead, tell me that why Driver A is better on the high-line and Driver B is slow after 5 laps. Tell me which driver between A and B generally have faster starts. Tell me the crews that have the lowest percentage of dropped lug nuts and the drivers that are the fastest into the pits without invoking a penalty.
Show me graphically how Driver A accelerates out of a turn versus driver B and explain why I should look to turn 2 for Driver B to finally overtake Driver A, or tell me what the commentators expect for Driver A to do in the pits to help his ailing car.
Explain to me once and for all proper fuel strategy and what the crew is hoping to accomplish and what they are risking.
In the final laps, show me next to the drivers’ name the estimated number of laps left in his tank.
I could go on with the almost limitless questions I have for Brad Daugherty and his friends.
I believe that Nascar has far more subtleties than baseball (though baseball is more psychological), but for anybody watching it, it just looks like cars turning left (except for Watkin Glens). Unfortunately, that’s all the commentators seem to understand.
</end rant
Thanks for listening.
I saw something Sunday that stunned me. Dale Earnhardt Jr. IS NASCAR. I don’t think there was one fan NOT standing when he took the lead. The desire to see Dale Earnhardt reanimated by his fans is truly a creepy thing to behold.
Geez, I get so tired of people getting this wrong. The First Amendment only applies to government action. In private affairs there is no right of free speech whatsoever. An owner of a private company could fire an employee on the spot for wearing an Obama shirt to work and such worker would have no First Amendment defense whatsoever.
The answer to talladega is quite simple, but NASCAR won’t do it because it will cost teams money and give them something else to have to inspect.
The solution: Take off the restrictor plates and run V6 engines. it wi slow the cars down to the speeds when Daytona and Tally were designed.
No restrictor plate will eliminate the huge packs, bring back the slingshot move, and the smaller engines will regulate the speed.
Racing will be just as it was in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s — still extremely exciting, but nowhere near as close packed.
NASCAR only knows one thing - cars race in circles and ONLY turn left. They need to look at other racing venues to see how to easily control speeds.
The track at Le Mans, France, has a straight (the Mulsanne Straight) that is over 4 miles long. Fast cars like Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, etc. used to exceed 240 MPH for 24 hours on this section of track. A few years ago a car went air borne and flipped like happened Sunday. The fix was to add two chicanes to this section to force the cars to slow down before reaching top speed.
Maybe the easy fix is a couple chicanes at Talladega. Oh wait – that would cause the cars to use their brakes, turn to the right, and then accelerate. Probably can’t be done in a NASCAR “stock car”.
I’d like NASCAR to use a true stock body on the plate tracks. All body panels must be factory stock. The rest of the car can be purpose built.