NASCAR reducing size of restrictor plates for 'Dega

[Jonesi]

http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/cup/10/10/talladega.restrictor.plates/index.html?eref=/rss/news/headlines/cup

[Wade91]

i dont like the idea making the cars slower, but i dont think it will be a very noticable diffrance,

BTW i'm going to the truck and cup race at talladega this month as i do every year :D

[call_me_andrew]

Less power = tighter packs = more crashes = yawn

[NickFalzone]

Less power = tighter packs = more crashes = yawn

That was my thought as well, the crashes will just be a little bit slower now.

[Mark in Oshawa]

THey told the teams in advance. That says to me the engine rooms will be burning the midnight oil trying to get back that 15 hp they are supposed to losing. I bet we cant even tell the difference in the racing......

[NickFalzone]

THey told the teams in advance. That says to me the engine rooms will be burning the midnight oil trying to get back that 15 hp they are supposed to losing. I bet we cant even tell the difference in the racing......

I agree. I actually don't think NASCAR really wanted to do anything, but now they can say "hey, we did something". And honestly, I don't know what they can really do, short of dropping restrictor plate racing entirely (and I highly doubt that will happen). I guess I wonder though where they feel the greatest risk is, to the drivers, or the fans. I know a few fans were injured during Edwards crash, so my guess is that's where NASCAR's concern is. And the only way to protect that is to change the fencing in some way. I have no idea what way that would be, other than preventing fans from sitting in certain areas of the track, like rows 4-12 in the middle of the front stretch.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I agree. I actually don't think NASCAR really wanted to do anything, but now they can say "hey, we did something". And honestly, I don't know what they can really do, short of dropping restrictor plate racing entirely (and I highly doubt that will happen). I guess I wonder though where they feel the greatest risk is, to the drivers, or the fans. I know a few fans were injured during Edwards crash, so my guess is that's where NASCAR's concern is. And the only way to protect that is to change the fencing in some way. I have no idea what way that would be, other than preventing fans from sitting in certain areas of the track, like rows 4-12 in the middle of the front stretch.

This is definately a sop to the insurance companies, and no, they will never take off the plates. Rusty Wallace took at COT out without a plate in a test for NASCAR to see what the dynamics were and Rusty was running 235 down the back stretch at Dega and likely would have been a 215 mph average lap. An accident at those speeds would put a car so far up into the grandstands, Brian France's private box would be in danger.

I think they should stop selling the first 14 rows personally, and give the guys a bit more plate to work with, but again, I am not an engineer or safety guy....

[call_me_andrew]

This is definately a sop to the insurance companies, and no, they will never take off the plates. Rusty Wallace took at COT out without a plate in a test for NASCAR to see what the dynamics were and Rusty was running 235 down the back stretch at Dega and likely would have been a 215 mph average lap. An accident at those speeds would put a car so far up into the grandstands, Brian France's private box would be in danger.

I think they should stop selling the first 14 rows personally, and give the guys a bit more plate to work with, but again, I am not an engineer or safety guy....


Rusty drove the old car in the unrestricted test, not the COT. Rusty has never driven a COT.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Rusty drove the old car in the unrestricted test, not the COT. Rusty has never driven a COT.

I will defer to you on that, but I do recall hearing Dave Moody on Sirius talking to someone about it, and there was some testing of the COT without a plate again to get data for Goodyear. Maybe it wasn't Rusty. That isn't neither hear nor there since the COT's engines are running close to 100 hp more than the mill Rusty ran in the older car 5 or 6 years ago. The COT hasn't been appreciably slower on any of the fast tracks NASCAR runs.

[harvick#1]

THey told the teams in advance. That says to me the engine rooms will be burning the midnight oil trying to get back that 15 hp they are supposed to losing. I bet we cant even tell the difference in the racing......

you prolly won't see it in the race, but when they run by themselves they will be slower.

Nascar is just overreacting to a situation that requires them to punish blockers instead of slowing the cars down. Nascar warns the drivers no slam drafting and bumping in the corners but all the drivers still do it with no penalty enforced.

a car wrecking at 190 MPH is still gonna be just as bad as one wrecking at 200MPH.

[Lee Roy]

I hate restrictor plate racing and I won't be watching this race. Unlike most here, if I hate some aspect of NASCAR racing, I just don't watch it.

As far as I'm concerned, the Sprint Cup season consists of 32 races, not 36.

[call_me_andrew]

I will defer to you on that, but I do recall hearing Dave Moody on Sirius talking to someone about it, and there was some testing of the COT without a plate again to get data for Goodyear. Maybe it wasn't Rusty. That isn't neither hear nor there since the COT's engines are running close to 100 hp more than the mill Rusty ran in the older car 5 or 6 years ago. The COT hasn't been appreciably slower on any of the fast tracks NASCAR runs.

I think the story you are referring to happend at Winter Testing at Daytona in 2008. It was the first time the COT had been run at a plate track and NASCAR underestimated what restrictor plate to use. The Penske cars went out first and Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman were averaging way over 190 without drafting. After a couple of laps NASCAR had them brought back to the garage to put tighter plates on the car.

[slorydn1]

I will defer to you on that, but I do recall hearing Dave Moody on Sirius talking to someone about it, and there was some testing of the COT without a plate again to get data for Goodyear. Maybe it wasn't Rusty. That isn't neither hear nor there since the COT's engines are running close to 100 hp more than the mill Rusty ran in the older car 5 or 6 years ago. The COT hasn't been appreciably slower on any of the fast tracks NASCAR runs.


That was this year, Greg Biffle tested at the old Texas World Speedway, and was hauling the freight.....Said it scared the daylights outta Jack Rousch

[Mark in Oshawa]

That was this year, Greg Biffle tested at the old Texas World Speedway, and was hauling the freight.....Said it scared the daylights outta Jack Rousch

That one I heard about. They were doing 218 on the front trioval at Texas, which is weird since its dimensions I thought were similar to Michigan and Fontana. There they tickle 202 or something......not 218

[cgs]

Texas World has 22 degrees of banking, Michigan has 18 and California has 14.