Damned right Mr. Smiggs, there has been a lot of wrecks just like the one that took down #3. SAFER and HANS does work. CB

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

NASCAR has spoiled everybody with the pack racing crap and the car that wins is the one that isn't in the "big one". What about years ago when it was Petty,Yarborough or Allison going for the lead with each other but they are a lap ahead of everyone else? I HATE plate racing,would rather the race be single file if it meant the big wrecks weren't part of the picture

 

Also a hater of the plates---it has changed racin' and not for the better! If there's an upside its that speeds are lower than they would be on bigger tracks had they not been implemented. In the 80's 200MPH average lap speeds weren't uncommon, often times they were touching on 230MPH down the back stretches. Anyone knowing anything bout the 'Cup cars knows that's not a safe speed regardless HANS devices or Saf-R-Barrier walls. Tires, aerodynamics without significant body/chassis changes just aren't up to the weight they run.

Even with the plates speeds have creeped up, those boys know how to make horsepower. Among the alternatives discussed before plates was further reducing the motor's CID or possibly requiring V-6's at certain tracks. While "affordable NASCAR" is an oxymoron the plates were the best option to limit top speeds.

I'll agree the gold ole days of big block motors 400+ CID were great and exciting, even into the 80's it wasn't uncommon to see Cale, Richard, David Person, Buddy Baker and a few other hard chargin' guys frammin' and bammin' out of turn 4, all the way through the dog leg, across the start/finish line and sometimes into Turn 1 too----good stuff. That damned Boddy Allison at Talledage in '87 changed things forever...............

BTW anyone at the big tracks before BA almost crashed into the stands remembers the teeny tiny threads of steel cable running through the catch fence----afterwards that cable was a lot heavier!

 

I know that really sucked I was hoping..... she had a very quick car....so back to predictions, she will be down a lap within 30 laps at Phoenix

 

Danica is to NASCAR what Shirley Muldowney was to drag racing, Tony Stewart is her Don Garlets.

I think she has a lot of talent, many times when she had wrecked in the past it was due to somebody taking her out.

Now mark my works, you want to watch someone? Watch Travis Pastrana in the Nationwaide Series...yes NITRO CIRCUS boy...lol..that guy can just drive anything you put him in. He has done very well behind the wheel.

 

Actually there is solution other than plates to slow down the cars. If there weren't, you'd have to run plates at all the tracks.

Cut down the banking, make them actually turn corners.

 

Those are the names I saw when I first started to watch NASCAR in 1967. By 1985 I stopped watching NASCAR and today I wouldn't waste my time. One, the cars look so very similar as compared to the days of past. Two, what you saw on the track in 1968 you could almost buy at the dealer. Remember what wins Sunday, sells on Monday. Today' cars are simply sheetmetal shells over parts you will never see at a dealer. Last, the drivers of today act too much like prima donnas. Not all but many. Nobody can ever say that Richard, AJ, Cale, David or Mario were primma donnas.

 

Can't agree with you there at all----that's not a solution at all! I think its far far easier to change the cars than it would be to repave a few 2.5 mile superspeedways---even shorter tracks with banking would also be monumentally expensive. Distances between the corners often times dictates top speeds, flattening the tracks would create too many dangerous conditions for both drivers and fans.

Money has definitely changed NASCAR, not always for the better but all around its still one of my favorite types of racing. Today's cars are products of many aspects, one being driver safety but lets face it---that has as much to do with legal liability as it does strictly keeping drivers as safe as can be in a hazardous sport. Sure they don't look just off the assembly line but would we pay to watch truly stock cars running top speeds 100 MPH or so? Ever watched a race at Daytona where top speeds were that slow? The only true completely stock cars racing are at demolition derbies---good fun but hardly racing!

Drivers today ACT differently from the good ole boys of days gone by but deep down they're the same. Sure they're hired mouthpieces for the sponsors but there very, very mulit-billionaires racing that do so just because its fun---it is and always has been about money. When more of that comes pouring in things change in order to keep it flowing in. I don't think Bill France, Sr saw it any other way.

Before it was possible to make a full time and wonderful rich living driving a race car many drivers had "real" jobs when they weren't racing. Early days of NFL were the same way; Fred Lorenzen and Alex Karras both sold insurance during their off seasons! Today's drivers are most often college educated and media savvy, presenting a public face for a product and might come across as spoiled brats.

Carl Edwards looks like Opie Taylor yet is smart, well educated but deep down a hard chargin' racer as any others in NASCAR, before or after he arrived. Kyle Busch is a punk and apart from his thin veneer of being professional will always be a punk, history will NOT be kind to him. Sure he's won a few races but unlike Dale Sr his aggressiveness isn't seen as anything more than trying to win a race. Such poor sportsmanlike conduct could never been classified as prima donna at all.

Hard to say how big money would have affected the old school guys----it was a different time. In the end whether they're considered credits to the sport will be how gentlemanly they conduct themselves after retiring. Ned Jarrett, Cale, Richard, Bobby and a host of others show their true character in how they live after NASCAR . Not too many would accuse them of simply riding around a track!

 

You are spot on ...on Travis.....and Danica is out of Phoenix...I now she is good for NASCAR...but there are soooo many women that are much better driver and will never get the chance....she is good looking and that has got her attention and in turn gets here sponsors...which in-turns gets her a ride...I just wish the one that can beat her had a chance.

 

There are two tracks that they run plates on. Daytona and Talladega. Dega is 2.66 miles, Daytona is 2.5 miles.

There are five 2.5+ mile tracks. Watkens Glen is a road course, so it doesn't really count. Both Indianapolis and Pocono are as long as Daytona, but don't have the banking. Pocono only has 3 corners, so it has even longer straight stretches.

They don't need plates, and the don't have any problems with speeds and "big ones" on the 2 2.5 mile flat tracks. Just the high banked ones. And on the 2 flat tracks, they do not have any more serious wrecks than any other.

The shorter tracks they don't run plates on either, and they don't need to do anything.

It would not cost that much to fix Daytona and Dega. They just don't want to, because the want the big packs and "the big one."

 

Wow----lots there to digest---interesting POV too!

The day is coming when V-8's running 358 CID and 700+ HP in cars weighing 3000 pounds will come to an end. Changing any track to the tune of millions of dollars in today's money is wildly impractical. Both Daytona and Talladaga were originally built to accommodate high speeds but only those current or foreseen at the time of construction.

In 1959 (Daytona) no one could anticipate top speeds of 230 MPH heading into Turn 4 anywhere. High-banked turns were probably built in order to encourage relatively higher speeds, allow for side-by-side racing and passing not possible then. For that period of time it was by far some of the most exciting racing to be seen.

The biggest difference now is speeds made possible by advancing technology specifically in engine development and management are a bit more than any track can safely sustain, NASCAR being the best example these days. Its not a faulty track design; its top speeds, aerodynamics and race trim weight probably most contributory to cars in the stands.

When top speeds are greatly reduced due a lack of horsepower so to speak we'll see modern day Sprint Cup cars holding the track like never before. Lowering CID is but one affordable way to keep the excitement alive by restoring the side-by-side, bumpin', bangin' racin' we've come to expect from "stock" car racing. Looking back to the late 70's we didn't see too many approaching top speeds like today, better racing and of course almost no one in the stands at any track.

Then again who knows what the big money influential cats will bring us?

 

This is Bobby Allison's wreck at Tallageda 1987. When this wreck happened, NASCAR decided to slow the cars down with restrictor plates.

This is accident was the birth of the restrictor plate.

 

^^^^ Oh yeah----I had tickets for that race too! Only thing was I had upper level seats, closer to Turn 1 so would have missed the mayhem.

The wild speculations ensued saying if Bobby had gone further into the stands and caused who knows what it would have almost ended auto racing in general, not just greatly affecting NASCAR.

This next year and those that follow will bring interesting developments I'm sure.