When Did the Big One Become Part of Racing?

I guess, at some point in the past, I
forgot to send NASCAR my new mailing address because I don’t recall ever getting
the newsletter explaining how "The Big One" was now going to be an
acceptable part of auto racing. Somewhere back down the road, probably around
the time the restrictor plate was nightmared up, major multi-car crashes became
common place at Daytona and Talladega and have now become an expected and
accepted way of life behind the wheel of a NASCAR race car. For the past few
years I have listened to drivers going into these races talk about one thing and
one thing only, being able to miss "The Big One" by being in the right
place at the right time. These guys ride around for 500 miles, white knuckles
wrapped around the steering wheel, eyes focused dead ahead, waiting for that one
second where all hell is going to break loose and pray that they will emerge on
the other side of the smoke and fire unscathed, hopefully able to continue on.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the
lunacy of this whole concept? I realize that Dale Earnhardt use to say that if a
driver was scared to drive under these conditions he could go buy a ticket and
sit in the stands and watch him do it. But I believe that Dale was more a fan of
"run what you brung" and every NASCAR fan knows without a doubt that
Dale was NOT a fan of the restrictor plate. It does not matter that he won more
restrictor plate races than anyone else. It does not matter that he seemed to
know where the air was moving to his advantage and when it would work against
him. He didn’t like that kind of racing and he wanted it done away with.
Probably not because of the close quarters racing but, more because he wanted to
be able to show the back end of his car to his competitors and drive away from
them.

Mark Martin is one of my favorite drivers
on the track and when things are clicking for him and his team he can do magical
things with a race car. In the words of Mark Martin, "If we had to race
more than four of these races a year, I’d find something else to do." When
Mark Martin tells us there is something he would rather be doing than driving
his race car, something is very wrong.

I believe there is something seriously
wrong when we watch the wives hugging their husbands before they climb into
their cars, wondering if they will ever see them alive again. At most race
tracks, they put them into the cars with the words, "kick some butt today
and don’t get hurt." At Daytona and Talladega, they don’t say much of
anything to their men because the last thing they would ever want to say to them
is, "please, do anything you have to to come back to me when this race is
over." I’m sure NASCAR thinks it’s beautiful the way the cameras get to go
up and down pit road before the start of these races and show America just how
close these husbands and wives are. I don’t think I ever recall seeing John
Elway’s wife hug him just before he went onto the field to do battle. Of course,
she probably never really thought John would get killed in a head-on crash with
a middle linebacker either.

A few weeks ago we witnessed a near
miracle at the spring Talladega race when the Winston Cup drivers raced the
distance from my hometown of Las Vegas to Los Angeles and back again, at over
180 mph and didn’t even hiccup one time. Though I haven’t watched the entire
tape all the way through, I did watch the last few laps, once I had heard that
it had gone caution free and that no one had been hurt. It was great to see
Bobby Hamilton in Victory Lane once again. It was not so great to see him and
Joe so emotionally drained from the stress of the last three hours, that they
had to sit down or they would have fallen down. Bobby almost did.

I’m sorry NASCAR, but this is NOT racing.
I think I heard that somewhere once or twice before. This is not racing. The
goal is supposed to be to slow the cars down to keep them safe for the drivers
and the fans in the stands. The goal is NOT to make a 40 car high-speed traffic
jam that could become a 20 car junkyard inside 5 seconds with one little twitch
from a driver. I think it was commendable that you decided to start enforcing
the yellow line rule with this race. It’s about damn time. However, I don’t
remember seeing anyone go below the yellow line at Daytona with 29 laps to go
when we were all treated to the sight of more than five million dollars worth of
cars become nothing more than scrap heap junk piles. I’m sure Tony didn’t
realize just how prophetic he was, sitting in his car with 30 to go and
thinking, "man, we’re really flying now."

I’m sure all the suits in the hallowed
halls of NASCAR are patting themselves on the back for putting on such a good
show where no one was seriously hurt. I hate to break it to them but they had
absolutely nothing to do with it. Their yellow line rule may have added a little
fuel to the fire of safety but, I think the drivers were completely prepared to
come back from this one alive, no matter what the cost. Most race fans can also
tell NASCAR that racing at Talladega and racing at Daytona are two entirely
different animals. The tracks are not the same width, the racing surfaces are
totally different and there is generally more room to move around at Dega and
not get into too much trouble.

But, in July we get to go back to the
track where one bad memory will overshadow any great moments in the past for any
driver going there. I can’t even begin to imagine what will be going through
Dale Jr’s mind the first time he takes to the track and makes his way through
turn four for the first time. I’m sure NASCAR, in it’s infinite wisdom, is
considering putting a great big white 3 on the wall of turn four somewhere, just
to remind us all of something we would rather not remember. Then, we will all
get to sit and wait for "The Big One" that NASCAR has mandated. Is
there any more evidence that "The Big One" plays right into NASCAR’s
plans than the posting of the video of the crash during the Busch race at
Talladega at www.nascar.com under the title "The Big One"?

It is time to figure something else out.
This thirteen year experiment with the plates has proven to be a total failure.
The drivers don’t like it. The fans loved the close racing up until one of their
biggest heros died as a direct result of the restrictor plate. Now they don’t
like it much either. Don’t let NASCAR kid you, Dale didn’t die because of a
faulty seatbelt or a super stiff front end on his car. He died because of
NASCAR’s insistence that a 40 car cyclone at Daytona is a great thing and we
should be happy about it. What I would like to see is Mike Helton squeeze his
big butt into a passenger seat next to Rusty Wallace during July’s race and sit
there for 400 miles and see if he is still all smiles when it’s over. Then maybe
we’ll get somewhere in our quest to make Daytona and Talladega and all NASCAR
racing safer for all concerned. If I remember correctly, Terry Bradshaw wasn’t
too thrilled sitting next to DE in a pace car, driving along just inches from
the wall. Dale loved it, Terry did not.

I like exciting races. I like close races.
I even like a little bumping and banging to some extent. Especially when the
television announcers say, "Live, From Thunder Valley!" I don’t think
I will ever forget the last ten laps at Atlanta this spring, with five cars
racing wheel to wheel and any one of them could have won the race. Then Junior
loses a tire. Then another car falls out. Finally, it’s just two cars battling
to a finish that was decided by the width of a license plate. I have seen
exciting races in the past but this one had to be one of my top ten favorites.
But, I don’t want to see artificially created close races.

What can be done, from a fan’s uninformed
point of view? First, knock the banking down at Daytona and Talladega. This has
been suggested before and needs to be suggested again. I remember telling
another race fan this and seeing the look of terror on his face. "They
would all end up in the parking lot on lap one!" Nope, sorry, they would
not. Going into turns one and three they would do the same thing they do at
Michigan and California and every other track in this country. They would lift
off the gas and get on the binders. Bring the banking down to about 18 degrees.
This would slow them down considerably.

Next, the most obvious idea, is cut the
horsepower to the rear wheels. How do we do this? "Smaller restrictor
plates!" Somebody shoot that guy. How about smaller engines? I am
incredibly impressed that these engine builders are getting close to 800
horsepower from a 358 cubic inch engine using a four-barrel carburetor and high
octane pump gas. Let’s find out how good they really are and knock the engines
down to the 302 inches. Then when they start pushing 200 mph again, take them
down to 289. (Notice my Ford bias here?) My guess is they would reach the 200
mph mark within five years. You want to see how good these guys are? Go outside
and hook a tachometer to your engine and run it up to 8000 rpm. Wonder if your
engine would last for 500 miles?

Another idea, how about a repaving of both
tracks? I’m not talking about a coat of sealer either. I’m talking about plowing
the old pavement up and rebuilding the racing surface from the ground up. One of
the reasons we’re seeing major crashes at these two venues is because their
surfaces are shot. DW made the comment in the booth that the cars would
"porpoise" over the bumps and cracks on the backstretch. How can this
be a good thing? It was said, by NASCAR no less, that it would cost between $6
and $20 million dollars to resurface both tracks. Okay. So what’s the problem?
Let me see if I remember correctly but I believe NASCAR just signed a $2.8
BILLION dollar television contract. With $2,800,000,000.00 in the bank account I
would think they could squeeze out a $20,000,000.00 bill to make these two
tracks safer for our heroes. Maybe that’s a far fetched idea but, both of these
tracks are owned by NASCAR through their little ISC and NASCAR should be at the
"forefront of safety" in this regard.

If NASCAR is really all about safety, like
they tell you they are, then it’s time they came out and made some measurable
changes to the cars that don’t end up making matters worse. The 400 at Daytona
is just a few weeks away. I’m not naive enough to think something massive can be
done before then. But, NASCAR could begin to lift the veil of silence and say
they are leaning in this or that direction. It’s also about time they dropped
the "broken seat belt" theory because no one I know believes them
anyway. Let’s hope that things go well and all our drivers get to go home to
their families afterwards. Oh, and here’s to hoping that Bill is first across
the finish line when the evening’s festivities are over.