This race is a bigger farce every time they run there.
Yesterday morning at the drivers’ meeting, NASCAR President Mike Helton warned that bump-drafting in the corners would be penalized. Looking out for driver safety, he says. Trying to avoid the Big One, he says.
So the drivers responded by driving around the track for the first 475 miles; no real racing to speak of. But here’s the thing: this isn’t making things any safer for the drivers, because with about 10 laps to go, everybody wants to get out front, and all hell breaks loose. Yesterday, there was not one, but two Big Ones in the final laps.
Fans get a 3-hour snooze-fest followed by a wreck-fest. Drivers and crews get what they call “The Lottery,” where driving ability, pit strategy, and engine-building all take a back seat to pure dumb chance.
Clearly nobody’s happy with the status quo here. But what should NASCAR do about it? I don’t pretend to know. Take out the restrictor plates and you’ll probably get truly unsafe speeds and/or one or two cars (probably Hendrick) lapping the field every time. Maybe Talladega just isn’t a good fit for NASCAR’s current technology, but you know politics will never allow it to be removed from the schedule.
So, what’s the solution? Or, does anybody like Talladega the way it is and think nothing needs to change?
That’s an interesting idea. Would you still have them run with restrictor plates, or is the idea that reduced banking would cut the speed enough not to need them?
Hah! You sure could make a road course out of all the accessways in the infield. I’d watch that race!
I think reducing the banking would turn it into a bigger California. I woudn’t mind seeing part of the track becoming a road course, but this track was built to highlight pure speed.
The problem is that the cars have to go fast enough to lift in the corners so they separate, without going over 200mph. Off the top of my head, either giving them very narrow tires or putting them in trucks are the only solutions I can think of. They used to separate with 5-600hp, but they were shaped like bricks and probably had narrow tires. Restrictor plates are a terrible idea. NASCAR could tell them what compression ratio and cam specs they are allowed to run to get the hp levels they seem are appropriate without killing throttle response like a plate does.
The big problem is that NASCAR will never admit they are wrong with anything. They need to fix a lot of things. Talladega and Daytona have plates, yellow lines, and now no touching rules. At the rest of the tracks we have The Chase, The Lucky Dog, no racing back to the checkered flag under caution, and a terrible COT.
I almost wish Bruton Smith could step up and start another series with rules similar to NASCAR in about 1997, but he’s too old now and NASCAR owns most of the tracks.
I know that they already do something similar with some other races at Daytona; I’ve seen motorcycle races there which veer off of the oval into the infield.
Talladega used to have a road course, but no racing series has run it in years (visible in Google Maps/Earth). They won’t/shouldn’t run one there, but they do need about 2 more road courses on the schedule, including one in the Chase.
I’ve only been a fan (casual) for about 10 years, so I don’t have as much knowledge of the sport as some. I generally catch most of the races in the spring/summer, and then some of the races once football starts.
This is probably my last year of trying to follow closely.
The Talledaga and Daytona races, the scheduling (although they are supposedly fixing this for next year), the fact that the season is too long (like baseball), and the weather this year… all of this combined to make me not really enjoy it anymore.
I’ll probably still watch the fun races I really enjoy, but I won’t be sitting to watch 3-4 hours of racing every weekend anymore.
The simplest solution would be a chicane in the middle of the back stretch. It would add a passing opportunity while still allowing wide open running on the banking.
Talladega/Daytona -
Kill the banking some, perhaps in just one of the ends. Just enough to keep speeds on fresh tires at around 190-200 entering the turns. Tires that give up significantly over the course of a fuel run. A reduction in engine size (at all tracks) to bring HP back to the 550-700hp range WITHOUT plates.
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Overall NASCAR Sprint Cup Series- **
Dump the “top 35” rule. Reschedule qualifying for Saturday if it rains on Friday (for Sunday races, Thursday-Friday for Saturday night races) Dump the chase.
Remove max height restrictions, ban bump stops, and allow the teams to work with the car more. Spec car racing doesn’t work in any series. Less rules, bigger “boxes”, and less interference (phantom cautions) from officials makes better racing.
As for the expected outcry of “what about the smaller teams without the budget…” Tough. This is top level racing. If you can’t afford to play, run in the Nationwide series, trucks, ARCA, or your local tracks.
I’ll keep watching either way. It’s still the best racing out there, I like the look of the COT (I’m in the minority here), and beats any stick/ball sport IMO. (I filmed every football game during my 4 years of high school, and still “don’t get it.” But I like the checks.)
And get rid of the stupid Chase. Playoffs in auto racing is so dumb I can’t even come up with an equivalent. (In fact, I rarely watch NASCAR anymore, and it used to occupy my every Sunday, all because of how stupid the Chase is.)
