In Plate Racing, You Can’t Be Afraid
Here we go again.
With another restrictor plate race coming up the whining resumes about how
"unsafe" it is. But the fact is you can’t be afraid. So stop being
afraid and just race.
Lee Spencer, proving herself one of the less-credible analysts in racing,
offers the
usual anti-plate racing tripe at Sporting News, and as usual it requires
refutation by facts.
"A 24-car pileup with fewer than 25 laps to go in April at Talladega. An
18-car mess with little more than 50 laps to go in February at Daytona."
And as usual the real cause is not implicated – drivers. Jeff Gordon detonated
the Daytona 500 crash by Earnhardt-Swervin’ Kevin Harvick (Spencer laughably
claims Harvick blocked off Gordon; the video showed this to be false); Mike
Wallace wiped out 24 cars at Talladega by Swervin’ into Tony Stewart.
Spencer goes further, noting that in the 2001 Alabama 500 "Bobby Labonte
took the white flag in the lead." Actually Junior had gunned him down at
the stripe and he was starting his free-fall through the field. "Seconds
later his car, entering the backstretch, was spinning on its roof, a target for
more than 30 cars traveling at more than 180 MPH." In fact Labonte had
little to fear of getting hit because his car was all but against the wall, away
from traffic. And Spencer doesn’t even touch on why that crash happened at all.
It happened because Bobby Hamilton got a run on Labonte up high and Labonte
slammed Hamilton to the outside wall, got both of them loose, and got tagged
into traffic by Hamilton, who was still fighting for control lost when Labonte
slammed him to the wall. The crash happened because Bobby Labonte caused it. And
how many of the cars that got involved did so because they tried to drive
through it instead of slowing down?
NASCAR castrated the cars by yanking off the roof spoilers as a result – a
typically stupid act of knuckling under to overpaid prima donnas instead of
telling them to shut up and race. And the result is the same – with a far weaker
draft, the cars cannot pass, and big crashes happen anyway. Spencer claims that
drivers "don’t have enough power to pull out of the draft and attempt a
pass," but this is a lie. The draft isn’t strong enough; it is not that the
cars don’t have enough power.
Spencer is right that, "There’s no reason modifications can’t be made
before the series returns to Talladega in October," but her ideas are
worthless. She advocates a larger restrictor plate and lowering the rear
spoilers. This is foolish. Larger restrictor plates mean greater speeds, and the
speeds need to be kept down, not increased. Larger plates do not give more
throttle response, which is a red herring issue to start with, and lower spoiler
sizes mean less drag, and mean an even weaker draft than present; far from
allowing drivers to pull out and pass, such a scenario makes passing harder
still and means even less side by side racing; this makes nonsense of the
"drivers would have more control" argument.
And less spoiler means more crashes – remember when the cars regularly spun
out because they lost air on their spoilers? You may not, because for the last
several years the spoilers and overall down force have been big enough that it
is largely impossible for a car to break loose.
And it won’t break up the packs. Nor is breaking up the packs the right way
to go in any event. Racing is about competition, and real competition means big
packs. The big packs are not a product of the current rules – only an historical
illiterate can plausibly believe that. Restrictor plates have been in NASCAR
since 1970, and in the ’70s there weren’t big packs even with the cars punching
open more air and the draft kicking in far more effectively than today. Nor were
there big packs when the plates came back in the late ’80s; nor were there big
packs for most of the early ’90s.
Nor are there big packs in those NASCAR divisions that also run restrictor
plates. The All-Pro and Goody’s Dash cars run the plates at tracks like Daytona,
Charlotte, Kentucky, and Nashville, and recent All-Pro and Goody’s Dash action
at those tracks has been pretty good, with a last-lap winning pass at Nashville
and some nifty three-wide racing for the lead at Kentucky. These divisions,
though, do not see big packs in their restrictor plate races.
The Featherlite Modifieds also run restrictor plates, at tracks like New
Hampshire, Richmond, and Nazareth, and their New Hampshire plate race battles
are well known as among the greatest racing anywhere.
The big packs came in NASCAR’s big leagues because of the increasing quality
of the race teams. In 1990 only about fifteen teams could win; that number is
now at the 40 range.
So what must NASCAR do next for Daytona and Talladega? Start by going back to
the roof spoiler package of 2000-1. Next, rescind the yellow-line rule, because
it serves absolutely no purpose. Next, study the IRL’s no-blocking rule, a rule
that can work for Daytona and Talladega. Next, the drivers should stop being
afraid and start racing; again, you can’t be afraid out there; it is something
they should already know.
And there is no good reason not to run a restrictor plate/aero anchor package
at other tracks, like Kansas, Chicago, Michigan, Charlotte, Bristol, and Pocono,
and not just for the Winston Cup and Grand National cars. Spencer talks about
how the drivers are not in control at Daytona and Talladega, but the real issue
of driver control is everywhere else – the speeds are such that drivers
generally cannot fight it out in the corners, but instead must hang on and keep
the car from crashing; lack of corner control due to excessive speed is a
perennially under-appreciated reason for the safety crisis of recent as well.
Reducing top-end means improved ability to charge the corners; when the Cup
and GN North cars ran the plates at New Hampshire in 2000, they could race the
corners faster with more control; the only downside was it was more sluggish
coming off, but it was the same for everyone and didn’t affect anything. The
strengthening of the draft would overcome this in any event.
The greatest race in NASCAR history was the 2000 Winston 500 – 49 lead
changes among 21 drivers. This is the template that all NASCAR racing needs to
fit; the way to fit is with the roof spoiler, high downforce, and restrictor
plates.
Dale Junior’s Firecracker win in 2001 was the stuff of dreams – and this is
why some people doubt its legality. Joanne
Korth delves into this controversy on the eve of the 2001 Firecracker’s
first anniversary.
"Could a NASCAR race be fixed?" The standard answer is "It
would be hard, really hard" (Sterling Marlin) because of "how many
things would have to happen perfectly for something like that to be
scripted" (John Darby).
But how hard would it have been to "fix" that 400? NASCAR’s vaunted
inspection process looks less than foolproof given the frequency with which some
teams get fined for post race infractions such as fuel cells. Junior is still
angry that people don’t believe his Firecracker win was legit and cites his
subsequent Talladega wins as proof. Yet as always the debate ignores the central
fact of plate races in 2001 – with the roof spoiler it was impossible for any
driver to lead more than 60 laps; in the Firecracker Earnhardt led 116 with the
roof spoiler. The way the draft worked with the roof spoiler he could not lead
with such impunity – unless there was something else going on.
Granted, Michael Waltrip could (and should) have passed him at the finish,
and, F1-style, deliberately didn’t. But the fact remains that Earnhardt did
something that was impossible to do under those rules. And his Talladega win
that October only undermines his case all the more – there he was unable to lead
more than 60 laps and unlike the Firecracker, at Talladega Junior had a really
serious fight on his hands all race long; he got swamped near the end and had to
roar through traffic to shoot down Bobby Labonte at the stripe.
Did NASCAR slip a larger restrictor plate to Junior in that Firecracker? I
certainly can’t say for certain. All I know is that Junior led more laps with
greater impunity than was possible to lead with the roof spoiler package, so
there is some reason to be suspicious.
Junior says he’s still mad as heck about accusations about the Firecracker
win’s legitimacy. Junior, follow the advice of The
Monkees and SheDaisy –
take The Last Train To Clarksville, and Get Over Yourself. I don’t care how hard
your crew guys work on that car – as if nobody else puts in the same or more
hours on their plate cars – you still led more laps with greater impunity than
was physically possible with the roof spoiler.
Also pathetic is how that race is still treated as magical. "NASCAR was
in mourning, perhaps even shock, nearly five months after the loss of its
Intimidator. But when Junior took the checkered flag…..sorrow turned to joy.
For many, the healing process began that night…."
You know there is something wrong with people that they couldn’t start the
healing process at the Carolina 400 when DEI’s Steve Park took the win. At the
very most, Kevin Harvick’s photo-finish Atlanta win, in RCR’s Goodwrench
Chevrolet, should have been the absolute end of the silent 3 laps and all the
other whimpering of grief, and the healing process’ consummation.
The sight of Junior and Mikey hugging atop their car roofs is also an embarrassing
reminder of how the F1 mentality of designated winner and designated blocking
back has infected NASCAR. So far Robert Yates Racing is the only mult-icar team
I’ve seen where the two teams have raced each other for the win all the same as
they do anyone else – we saw that at Martinsville and New Hampshire in 2001.
Davey Allison’s death was handled much better by the sport, in part because a
driver who could win in Davey’s old #28 became available and won twice that
season. Alan Kulwicki’s death, Adam Petty’s, Kenny Irwin’s, and so forth were
all handled better, with greater maturity by most involved.
Several other events are also on tap for the weekend –
The IRL returns to Kansas Speedway and the start of its season-finishing
superspeedway swing. On tap the same say is the inauguration of the Infiniti Pro
Series, taking the place of the now-defunct Indy Lights division. The racing
should be good – the Lights race at Kansas was competitive with a three-wide
photo finish – though the entry field is only eleven cars.
The Trucks also tackle Kansas while the Grand National cars kick things off
at Daytona on Friday night.
Have a happy 4th of July, and God Bless America.