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Kenny Bruce: Talladega tempest marches on and on
By Kenny Bruce - Assistant Managing Editor
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Mark Martin's Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet rolls across the track in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
LaDon George
NASCAR Scene
COMMENTARY
NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series rolls into Texas Motor Speedway this weekend for the eighth stop of this year’s 10-race Chase For The Sprint Cup. Talladega’s in the rearview mirror, put away once again as the series moves on.
And that’s too bad. Because NASCAR has some serious issues with races contested at the series’ largest track, high-flying, wheels-off-the-ground issues.
Every time the Sprint Cup Series rolls into Talladega, mayhem ensues. It’s a given. Pick a year, any year, and chances are there was at least one wreck at Talladega that collected six or more cars. It happened with the old car, and it has happened with the new car. It happened with bigger restrictor plates, and it has happened with smaller restrictor plates.
It’s simply not going to change.
Now, since that’s the case, wouldn’t it make sense for NASCAR to try and figure out a way to keep cars from getting airborne? Because that’s really what irks me about racing at Talladega.
Every driver, whether he has won several championships or hasn’t won a single race, deserves to compete in a car that has been made as safe as possible. And, for the most part, NASCAR has made huge gains in that area.
But Ryan Newman flips upside down and Mark Martin barrel rolls in this year’s fall race. Carl Edwards’ car takes flight and slams into the catch fence in the spring event, a day after Matt Kenseth rolls and rolls and rolls some more in a Nationwide Series race.
You don’t believe in miracles? Each of the four walked away. Try that on for size.
It’s no longer if a car flips at Talladega, but when. And that’s frightening.
Racing may be a dangerous sport, but risking life and limb shouldn’t be taken for granted. And it seems as if that’s the case.
You can’t trivialize the situation by stating that there have been multicar crashes at every track. Not like these, there haven’t.
The use of roof flaps and passenger-side windows, which help redirect the air inside the drivers’ compartment when a car gets turned sideways, have helped. Cars spin, begin to lift off the ground and drop back onto the racing surface. Most of the time. That appeared to be the case with Edwards’ car in this year’s spring race, until it was hit and shoved back into the air by a trailing car just as it began to settle.
Martin’s car began to roll after he was struck in the right-rear, the force of the impact and the area where his car was hit combining to put his car on its roof briefly.
But it wasn’t contact that caused Newman’s car, or Kenseth’s in the spring, to fly up off the racing surface. Both had spun off the track and onto the apron when their cars began to flip.
And that simply should not happen.
But of course, it will continue to, until NASCAR decides that flying cars are a very real problem. Or until a driver is seriously injured.
Take your pick. I know which one I would choose.
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6492 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -108 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -169 |
| 4 | Kurt Busch | -211 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -285 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -289 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -321 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | -352 |
| 9 | Ryan Newman | -411 |
| 10 | Kasey Kahne | -476 |
| 11 | Carl Edwards | -520 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -666 |
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Comments
19 responses to "Kenny Bruce: Talladega tempest marches on and on ". Post a Comment.
Rainier said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 11:42 AMThere's only one way to avoid airborne cars at Talladega and that's not to race there. You can't drive at those speeds in a freight chain of cars without causing someone to spin putting the car at the right angle for a brief flight. At other tracks where speeds are high like Texas and Atlanta, the cars usually hit a wall before the car has a chance to go airborne. Talladega is so open its like a runway when the cars start spinning. I wish they raced on more high bank shorter and short tracks like Dover and Bristol.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportdirtcar26 said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 1:42 PMIf people really want to see that kind of carnage, make the 1st talladega the a non-points exibition format; this will cut down all of the nonraceing time spent riding around for 3hrs. and make the chase date at dega a road course;that will eliminate the plates and so the cars can get throtle responce back. People have already voiced an intrest in a road course in the chase anyway as well as voicing they love the big wrecks of plate racing. So we kill to birds and keep plate carnage from ending the points race a month pre mature. Just one guys idea.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportbm0239 said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 3:47 PMTHE NEW CARS FLY BECAUSE THEY DRINK RED BULL. THEY HAVE A "WING!!!"
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» Confirm Abuse Reportminkee2 said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 3:50 PMI agree with Rainier, just drop Dega from the Fall, at the very least. I don't care what else they do to it, but the way it is now, is just unsafe to everyone. Besides 450 laps of single file at the beginning is boring. Put Watkins Glen in Talledega's place!
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» Confirm Abuse Reportdeyanak said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 3:52 PMhow about we get the Nascar drivers to all field Indy type cars...they all run that fast or faster...just a STUPID thought..whats wrong with me???
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» Confirm Abuse ReportSheilaLovesNASCAR said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 4:25 PMYou shouldn't have a wing on a car. It makes them fly.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportWerner said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 4:42 PMthey weren'r designed to go 190 MPH backwards...too much air gets under the car at that speed...some how that air needs to get dispersed...lower the rear bumper cvr?....
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» Confirm Abuse Reportoldmanjob said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 4:52 PMNASCRAP needs to ditch the boring chase, get rid of the boring 1 1/2-and 2 mile tracks and do more short track racing where the fans are not sleeping in the stands, or watching football on another channel.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportwmvjr1960 said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 5:00 PMTake the drivers out and let the spotters drive by remote control. Nascar is already telling the drivers when they have to lift anyways. I say allow the bump drafting all the way around and the 200mph trains, that way they can spread out. And Werner had a good idea with the rear bumper cover.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportpj88 said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 6:25 PMThey need to figure out how to keep the cars from flying,they don't need to change Dega.They sure don't need another Watkins Glen race,I do remember there was a wreck there also.If, everytime there's a wreck and Nascar has to fix something,we'll have a bunch of guys in cars on flat tracks doing 55.I am a woman who loves to watch racing and I was a Buddy Baker fan for yrs.I am a Dale Jr. fan now and proud of it.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportSTP43FAN said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 6:27 PMOLDMANJOB - short tracks are boring; there isn't any serious incidence of passing up front and there's more mayhem than there is at Talladega.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportleftturn said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 7:38 PMThe safety of the drivers cannot be denied or compromised any longer. How long until we are on our feet in the stands not to cheer, but to bow our heads again?
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» Confirm Abuse Reportjhe1760 said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 8:04 PMThat was the most boring race I have seen. Let them race, let them be men. If it's to fast for some of the drivers, don't go to Talladega. There are scores of drivers that will take the girly boys places. Its racing, there's danger involved. Stop whinning about it.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportbthompson133 said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 9:31 PMrear gear change ,let them drive in smaller packs, ditch wing
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» Confirm Abuse Reportpj88 said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 11:09 PMAmen #13
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» Confirm Abuse Reportandygray212 said:
Nov 5, 2009 at 11:31 PMwell said PJ88 and JHE1760!
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» Confirm Abuse Reportkeith308 said:
Nov 6, 2009 at 9:56 AMThe wings cause the flips. Talladega and the restrictor plate are a disaster. Shrink Talladega or don't race there. The drivers followed each other for all but the last 50 laps. Fans were cheated. As I always said watch the 1st 10 laps then watch the last 50 laps and you see the whole race. The cup cars should look like the Natonwide cars but Nascar can't admit it made a mistake with these clones.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportSTP43FAN said:
Nov 6, 2009 at 1:45 PMLEFTTURN - that's not going to happen at Talladega.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportracinghcr said:
Nov 10, 2009 at 3:25 PMTake all aero devices off the cars,reduce tire size,and take off the stupid restrictor plate --THEN the drivers will have to DRIVE to cars through the corners and have acceloration and control to DRIVE the cars --NOT POINT THEM as they do with Nazicar's stupid Restrictor Plates! It's SIMPLE--PUT CONTROL BACK IN THE DRIVER'S HANDS-THEN we will see WHO the BEST DRIVER is PERIOD! BY the WAY "KRAZY K" or "KRASHLOWSKI" (Keselowski) ONCE AGAIN CAUSED THE BIG WRECK AT TALLADEGA by knocking Kurt Busch across the track into half the field setting off a chain reaction ,13-car wreck that took even more of his innocent fellow competitors out of the race with destoyed race cars than when he knocked Carl Edwards into Ryan Newman and the Talladega fence injuring several innocent fans last Spring! Furthermore "KRAZY K" had NO REMORSE or APPOLOGIES to the drivers,owners,and fans that by his STUPID DECISIONS cost thousands of dollars of property damage and life-long PERSONAL INJURIES ( particularily the 17 -yr old girl who was injured seriouly) . This IDIOT="KRAZY K" is a MENACE to anyone around him! His STUPID =DANGEROUS ACTIONS SHOULD DRAW PENALITIES FROM NAZICAR'S "BIG BOSSES IN THE BOX"---OTHERWISE HONEST DRIVERS will begin to extract their own forms of racing JUSTICE,and the DRIVER PAYBACKS FOR 'KRAZY K" will be HELL because he has wrecked about every driver in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series! PS: Carl Edwards showing TRUE humanity and Class has visited the injured 17-year old Girl several times,offering her his support and Kindness! Question is where is the ignorant,careless,classless,and UN-CARING "KRAZY K" who CAUSED the WRECK???
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