Bob Pockrass: NASCAR needed to change rules, but Talladega race shows more needed
Ryan Newman's Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet is carried into the garage at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday. Newman flipped the car, then had to have the roof cut off so that he could get out. // Elmer Kappell, NASCAR Scene
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COMMENTARY
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Some NASCAR drivers complained about the box they were put in at Talladega Superspeedway with the rules package, which they say created a race that began as a single-file snoozefest and then turned into a dangerous dance of cat and mouse.
But NASCAR is in a box, too, and while it doesn’t have the right answer yet, it’s hard to blame NASCAR for trying to fix a potentially dangerous situation by not allowing pushing and bump-drafting in the corners.
Sure, it would be nice to rally around the mantra of “Let them race,” but let’s not fool ourselves here. If that was the mission of the sport, there would be no need for a point system. NASCAR could just say whoever wins the most races wins the title. But if NASCAR did that, drivers would be wrecking on the final lap every week instead of every few weeks, and NASCAR might as well beef up the staffing of the infield medical center and designate an area of the garage for a heap of parts and pieces of damaged cars.
The other reason for creating this rule is that everyone saw what happened in April. Brad Keselowski pushed Carl Edwards around the entire track and they turned a lap of 200.7 mph. Once they made contact, Edwards’ car came off the ground and was eventually launched into the catch fence after getting hit by Ryan Newman. After seeing that and seeing that drivers were likely going to attempt a similar style of racing in Friday practice, what’s NASCAR supposed to do?
NASCAR’s biggest mistake was informing everyone a couple of hours before the race of the new rule. While NASCAR had told the drivers they wanted to see space and even parked Michael Waltrip during practice Friday, the rule didn’t become hard and firm until Sunday morning.
Did the drivers have a mini-revolt for the first half of the race? Probably not. They just didn’t want to be the ones to test the new rule. It was actually a little surprising that none of the drivers tested NASCAR on the issue in the turns early the race. Considering the ability to get back up in the draft, a drive-through penalty could have been something a team could overcome, and it would be worth seeing what a driver could get away with.
Instead, the drivers just waited for the final 80 laps to begin making their moves, figuring out what would work and what wouldn’t. None were penalized. But NASCAR – officials and drivers – couldn’t avoid turning two cars upside down.
While logging laps early in an event before getting down to nitty-gritty racing is typical at some tracks (even Daytona), it’s not what fans are used to seeing at Talladega, and many were angry. It’s kind of Bristol all over again – the style of racing changed, and those who enjoyed the previous style turn on their computers and flood message boards about how NASCAR has ruined the sport.
This is not the first time where a rule change designed for safety reasons curbed some of the excitement of a restrictor-plate race, and NASCAR cannot just ignore that fan sentiment. The shame about Talladega is that NASCAR made a rule for safety that ended up angering fans, and while no cars got in the catch fence, two drivers got close-up views of the pavement no driver ever wants to see.
Neither can be acceptable, and, hopefully, NASCAR doesn’t think its work is done with this rule change. It should consider a full test at Talladega to try different aero packages, even if that means the same cars can’t be used at Daytona and Talladega. It should have outside engineers look at the wrecks of the last year – four vehicles have turned over in the last two Talladega weekends – and see if there is anything else it can do. If the wing is the issue, then it should mandate spoilers for Talladega. Those changes and studies might seem costly, but it’s not as costly as fans turning off their television sets, not coming to the races and drivers becoming passengers in cars that are landing upside down on the hoods of their competitors.
There have been only six races at Talladega with the new-model Cup car. It’s obviously still a work in progress at Talladega. That’s to be expected. The race Sunday was just part of the growing pains.
I just don’t want to hear the line, “That’s just Talladega.” No one should be resigned to the fact that the big wreck and cars turning over are going to happen at Talladega. If people want to say, “That’s just Talladega,” then it should refer to Talladega being a work in progress as far as tweaking the rules for the best combination of racing and safety. That’s been NASCAR’s challenge for the 40 years since the beast that we call Talladega opened for business.
There’s more work to be done. A higher catch fence, change in the holes of the restrictor plates and rules on bump-drafting don’t seem to be enough.
