Everybody hates having restrictor plates because it makes everybody equal – drivers, engine builders, and teams. Even after his big wreck, Bobby had the best saying about restrictor plates I ever heard.
He said in a press conference at Talladega one time that he didn’t like the plates because it made other drivers as good as him when they weren’t as good as him. He was right.
Restrictor-plate racing bunches up the field and gives drivers who may not have the skill or the experience and teams that may not have the best equipment to run with the big boys on any given day, and that’s not right. It’s also dangerous because it makes drivers hold it wide open all the time, and that’s why there’s often a “big one” at Talladega and Daytona.
A driver running a restrictor plate simply cannot back off the throttle for fear of losing the draft. In that respect, they take away a driver’s control of his racecar and, for the most part, dictate his race strategy for him.