Drivers dissatisfied with restrictor-plate racing
By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
October 22, 2001
9:53 AM EDT (1353 GMT)
TALLADEGA, Ala. -- With less than a mile remaining in Sunday’s EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, it appeared that the 43-car field had avoided the dreaded ‘big one’ for the second consecutive race.
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Bobby Labonte escaped without injury from his final-lap tumble.
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Then, as the lead pack of some 20 cars screamed down the back straightaway on the final lap, the steamrolling train of cars jumped the tracks, resulting in a multicar accident that sent Bobby Labonte flipping down the backstretch.
When the dust settled -- luckily without injury -- several drivers voiced their distaste for the current state of superspeedway racing to the sanctioning body.
Example 1, Ward Burton: “I hope they’re proud of themselves. We came down here and tested. A lot of us learned something, but (NASCAR) didn’t learn anything. If this is racing, they can have it and I think everybody in the garage will say that. It’s ridiculous.”
Example 2, Sterling Marlin: “It ain’t the drivers, it’s NASCAR. You run it all day, you’re going to wreck. Every driver has been telling them in the NASCAR trailer that it’s going to happen. They wanted it to happen.
“They’ve got to fix it. They had it fixed if they had done the rules they tried down here in the test. 80 percent of us wanted it and 20 percent didn’t, so they went with the 20 percent. I guess they wanted to see us wreck.”
Example 3, Tony Stewart: “I’m just glad to be alive after this one’s over.”
Hence, NASCAR felt compelled to respond.
“I thought it would be appropriate for me to tell you what NASCAR’s response is,” said Jim Hunter, NASCAR’s vice president for corporate communications. “The overriding question is ‘what are we going to do to prevent these accidents in the future?’.
“We don’t like these wrecks any more than our drivers do. We’ve yet to come up with a solution, but we will before Daytona next year. I don’t have any details on what we’ll do today. But I can assure you we’ll figure this out so that we’re not faced with this type racing in Daytona.”
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Tony Stewart donned a head and neck restraint for the first time at Talladega.
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To do that, Hunter said he foresees NASCAR doing offseason testing. Of what, he wouldn’t say. But he did say NASCAR has a focused goal.
“The solution we’re looking for is to put things back in drives hands,” Hunter said. “We want to get away from racing where all the cars are exactly equal. In an ideal world, the solution would include figuring a way that the driver has to back off in corners and not run wide open around (Talladega).”
With the current aerodynamic configuration, complete with restrictor plates and roof spoilers, the cars stick together in tight-knit packs, unable to gain much advantage on one another. Many drivers feel as if it’s a waste of time.
“You ride around a long time and wait for the end,” said Labonte, who escaped from the melee unscathed. “That’s typical racing here a lot of times. (The wreck) wasn’t that bad, actually it was a lot smoother than a lot of times on wheels.
“It was on fire about halfway down the back straightaway and I slid the fire extinguisher off. When it came to stop I hopped out. I have a headache and hard feelings -- at least bitterness right now. But you go home and cool off and everything will be fine.”
Compared to most of his compadres, Labonte is too forgiving. NASCAR knows something must be done to assure the safety of its drivers. A year ago, as cars neared 200 mph in Happy Hour practice, NASCAR opted to reduced the size of the restrictor plate. Then, according to Hunter, they toyed with the idea of enlarging the cockpits of the cars to add wind resistance. Hunter said that only made the cars faster.
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Jim Hunter
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Nineteen teams tested here last month, and the overall consensus among drivers was that a 60-degree spoiler without a wicker bill -- a small lip -- was better. NASCAR kept what it had, much to the dismay of several competitors.
“They’ve got to fix it,” Marlin said. “They had it fixed if they had done the rules they tried down here in the test. Eighty percent of us wanted it and 20 percent didn’t. They went with the 20 percent.”
According to Hunter, “a half dozen drivers, some serious races and former champions,” showed up to discuss their issues with NASCAR Sunday.
“I think the gist of the conversations were talking about the big wreck, and the fact that it puts the drivers in a position which they’re driving defensively,” Hunter said. “That’s not exactly what they want to do, or feel the best doing at Talladega.
“Even though we have not come up with a solution, we need to get together and figure one out.”
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