I just finished watching This Week in NASCAR on SPEED. Most of the show was devoted to talking about how to avoid further incidents like what we saw at 'Dega on Sunday, and what we seem to see at almost every restrictor plate event these days.
The bulk of the conversation centered around (a) how to separate the cars, and (b) how to stop the bump drafting that not only continues, but is escalating and evolving into continuous pushing, despite warnings to the contrary in driver meetings.
Regarding the latter, it's the same old story. NASCAR tells drivers "Don't do 'x'." Then when drivers do "x", repeatedly, they get little or no penalty . If there is a penalty, it's after the race. The drivers on the show (Biffle, Knaus, and Waltrip) said that in the driver meetings the drivers were told the whole Talladega track was a "no-bump-zone". The race came off exactly the opposite. Watching the race, it looked more like the whole track was designated a "no-penalty-zone". As far as I know, no in-race penalties were levied. I'm unsure if any have been enforced since, but I haven't been able to find any.
The drivers on the show seemed to be in agreement that steps need to be taken to police driver behavior with penalties during the race. (Man, I've been saying this for years.) Apparently a lot of drivers are in general agreement with this sentiment, though some think everything's fine as is. The impression I got was that most drivers are trying to do the right thing, while others are out there doing whatever they want, whenever they want, and they're getting away with it. Bad recipe. They also were generally in agreement that the cars need to be separated, for the safety of the drivers and the fans, though curiously, none advocated the removal of restrictor plates, which is what bunched the cars up in the first place. They suggested looking at further safety measures, such as reviewing the roof flaps that are supposed to keep the cars grounded.
Personally, it seems to me as if talk of removing the restrictor plates and slowing the cars in other ways on these tracks is anathema in NASCAR and TV executive brass circles due to, let's face it, the desire of much of the American auto racing viewing public's desire to see the "big one" or crashes in general. NASCAR knows that in America, twisted metal = twisted excitement = ratings = big $$$.
There are ways to slow the cars and still spread them out, rather than just limiting their top end, and no, I'm not talking about putting a chicane in the back stretch, as either Knaus or Biffle suggested. Wow.
The Link
The bulk of the conversation centered around (a) how to separate the cars, and (b) how to stop the bump drafting that not only continues, but is escalating and evolving into continuous pushing, despite warnings to the contrary in driver meetings.
Regarding the latter, it's the same old story. NASCAR tells drivers "Don't do 'x'." Then when drivers do "x", repeatedly, they get little or no penalty . If there is a penalty, it's after the race. The drivers on the show (Biffle, Knaus, and Waltrip) said that in the driver meetings the drivers were told the whole Talladega track was a "no-bump-zone". The race came off exactly the opposite. Watching the race, it looked more like the whole track was designated a "no-penalty-zone". As far as I know, no in-race penalties were levied. I'm unsure if any have been enforced since, but I haven't been able to find any.
The drivers on the show seemed to be in agreement that steps need to be taken to police driver behavior with penalties during the race. (Man, I've been saying this for years.) Apparently a lot of drivers are in general agreement with this sentiment, though some think everything's fine as is. The impression I got was that most drivers are trying to do the right thing, while others are out there doing whatever they want, whenever they want, and they're getting away with it. Bad recipe. They also were generally in agreement that the cars need to be separated, for the safety of the drivers and the fans, though curiously, none advocated the removal of restrictor plates, which is what bunched the cars up in the first place. They suggested looking at further safety measures, such as reviewing the roof flaps that are supposed to keep the cars grounded.
Personally, it seems to me as if talk of removing the restrictor plates and slowing the cars in other ways on these tracks is anathema in NASCAR and TV executive brass circles due to, let's face it, the desire of much of the American auto racing viewing public's desire to see the "big one" or crashes in general. NASCAR knows that in America, twisted metal = twisted excitement = ratings = big $$$.
There are ways to slow the cars and still spread them out, rather than just limiting their top end, and no, I'm not talking about putting a chicane in the back stretch, as either Knaus or Biffle suggested. Wow.
The Link
