I love Talladega. I have been to five Cup race weekends over the years at the Alabama superspeedway including Dale Earnhardt's thrilling victory where he came from mid-pack with five laps remaining to win with Kenny Wallace pushing him all the way. Sadly, as it turned out, it was Earnhardt's final victory. I have been to seven other Cup tracks over the years and they have all paled in comparison to what I have experienced at Talladega. In fact I can honestly say that I would only buy a ticket to one of those other seven, but I am always looking for some friends to join me on an Alabama road trip. Of course the fact that we can wander down to the dirt track (Talladega Short Track) on Friday and Saturday night while there just adds to the fun.
Watching the finish of Sunday's race at Talladega was downright scary. Our sport dodged a bullet when the catch fence did its job and thankfully only seven fans suffered non-life threatening injuries. I love Carl Edwards as well, how could I not? He is a hard driving midwestern boy who cut his teeth on many of the dirt tracks that we cover here at PR.com, but I cringed when he made the statement that NASCAR is going to race this way until they kill someone before making any changes. This type of statement is nothing new as many drivers, both Sunday and for years, have said that changes need to be made to the restrictor plate racing. But here is my question, just what "changes" do they suggest?
Do they want NASCAR to take the plates off? If Edwards would have been going 220 mph instead of 195 he likely would have floated even higher into the air and, heaven forbid, cleared the fence. Yes, taking the plates off might spread the field out a little more, but there will still be packs of cars drafting off of each other and with the increased speeds the margin of error will be decreased even further than it is now. I seriously hope that this is not the change that the drivers are looking for!
Do they want NASCAR to start penalizing for "blocking"? If Carl would have held his line, would this accident have happened? Seems to me that just about every Cup race at Talladega and Daytona finishes under caution anymore. Wasn't it great to see the Nationwide race finish under green on Saturday? And what a finish it was as David Ragan came from fourth entering the tri-oval to first at the finish. When did the Cup drivers become so unconcerned about the monetary cost of trashing a car just to pick up, or hold on to one position? I would think that in today's economic climate it would be much more beneficial to not throw that block on the final lap (and I'm not just talking about Edwards) and put the car in the transporter in one piece with a slightly lower purse check. Yes, the plates keep the field bunched together, but does it make you wonder how they can race three-wide ten cars deep lap after lap with no issues until the final ten laps? Can NASCAR legislate "common sense" by penalizing for blocking? Only after the fact, and that is usually after the wreck.
Do they want NASCAR to take away the "out of bounds" line? Brad Keselowski knew that Regan Smith was faced with the same scenario last year at Talladega and when he went below the yellow line to "win" the race, he was penalized to the back of the lead lap cars. No wonder Brad didn't go below the line when Edwards came down on him, after all he wanted to win the race. Should he have gone below the line anyway and settled for second since you are only penalized if you improve your position? I should hope not, he faked high and then went low and had the momentum needed to make the pass for the win! The problem is that I think that the "out of bounds" rule was established by NASCAR a few years back when drivers said that "changes need to be made", so how can they overturn it now?
I'm the first to admit that I am not a "rules guy" especially when it comes to the mechanical aspect of the sport, so maybe there is something more that can be done there. I hope so, because I really don't see any of the above as workable solutions which leads me to the one "change" that I truly hope is NOT on the minds of the drivers; to no longer race at Talladega.
Ugh....I saw a recap of an interview with Jimmie Johnson today (Thursday) stating that the change that he is looking for would be a new configuration of the track. Get the bulldozers out and reduce the banking so that drivers have to let off the gas going into the corners. My initial thought was "don't we already have other tracks like that?" :)
CJ Speedway has cancelled their races for Friday May 1st due to wet grounds.
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