Plate racing

mike honcho said:
I would like to see 1 race without the plates though.:growl::growl:
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There are 36 races each year and only four of them are plate races. How many cars do you want to see go through the catch fence? If you want to see pure speed, then there are other series that are much faster than stock cars and race weekly. I've seen plenty races at both Daytona and Taladega without restrictor plates and while some of them were great, others were pretty stinky, as they say in racing. I'm a big Bill Elliott fan and loved it when he came from two laps down to win a race, none of those laps were earned by the "lucky dog" or from a caution either. Good racing? I guess. Exciting, hardly. For the most part, unless you were at the track, you weren't able to watch Bill's progress as he came through the field. Those old days of single file racing and sling shots were only sweet at the end of the race when they really did race. What do we see these days? Though the drivers would dearly love for that single file racing again, anyone behind the third or fourth place car is going to try and make a pass, and it won't be at the end of the race, thus we wee two, three and four wide racing. If that isn't exciting to you, those cars going around at about 190 plus MPH, they you are asleep on the couch. I see enough single file, aeropush racing at most of the tracks and need this rush of excitment now and then just to keep my interest in NASCAR. :)
 
buckaroo said:
There are 36 races each year and only four of them are plate races. How many cars do you want to see go through the catch fence?...
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Indeed. Although I am not a fan of plate (pack) racing and not a fan of the COT, I am a fan of safety. Several bad crashes (Rusty, Petty, Allison, etc.) brought on the restrictor plate. Terrible wrecks still occur at these superspeedway tracks but I think the plate, combined with Roush's roof flaps have helped keep the cars on the ground and out of the catch fence when the "big one" happens.
Geoff Bodine was involved in one of the most horrific crashes at Daytona in 2000. The trucks did not have a plate and they pulled the front fenders out in an attempt to slow the trucks down by carving a bigger hole in the air. Arguably, one of the worst modern-era crashes...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7WMGgZiZT4
 
Since I inserted this subject in another thread, I thought it might be a good time to discuss this again with Taladega coming up. I totally understand the viewpoint of the drivers on this, but I also understand the reasoning for the plates. Of course the drivers want more response from their cars, not just for racing, but also for safety sake when they need to take defensive measures. Personally, as I've stated before, I enjoy the plate races both at Daytona and Taladega. Not even Bristol can match the edge of the seat suspense that those two tracks provide. It just shows how great these guys really are, going around those tracks at those speeds two, three and sometimes four abreast. Every lap I see two or three wrecks coming up, but it usually doesn't happen when I think it will. Sometimes there is the "big one", but not always. That is something that the media always stresses though, and of course, that is what some people wait to see.

So what is your argument for or against those restricter plates?
 
buckaroo said:
Since I inserted this subject in another thread, I thought it might be a good time to discuss this again with Taladega coming up. I totally understand the viewpoint of the drivers on this, but I also understand the reasoning for the plates. Of course the drivers want more response from their cars, not just for racing, but also for safety sake when they need to take defensive measures. Personally, as I've stated before, I enjoy the plate races both at Daytona and Taladega. Not even Bristol can match the edge of the seat suspense that those two tracks provide. It just shows how great these guys really are, going around those tracks at those speeds two, three and sometimes four abreast. Every lap I see two or three wrecks coming up, but it usually doesn't happen when I think it will. Sometimes there is the "big one", but not always. That is something that the media always stresses though, and of course, that is what some people wait to see.

So what is your argument for or against those restricter plates?
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Buck lets not do this again, how many times have we had this discussion in the forum about plate racing.....way too many times.
 
Plate racing is here to stay. It sucks. Earnhart was killed in a plate race, so please do not hand me any B.S. about them being safer. If anything they make the racing more dangerous because there is more of a chance that a big one will collect many cars. If Nascar is so afraid of speed, why can they go faster at 1 1/2 mikle tracks? Just restrict the engine size if you must, but plate racing is nothing more than driving around in a circle, trying to avoid the big one, and then making a move on the last lap. It is boring and it is costing Nascar many fans. They could not sell out the Daytona 500.
 
BigdaddyQH said:
Plate racing is here to stay. It sucks. Earnhart was killed in a plate race, so please do not hand me any B.S. about them being safer. If anything they make the racing more dangerous because there is more of a chance that a big one will collect many cars. If Nascar is so afraid of speed, why can they go faster at 1 1/2 mikle tracks? Just restrict the engine size if you must, but plate racing is nothing more than driving around in a circle, trying to avoid the big one, and then making a move on the last lap. It is boring and it is costing Nascar many fans. They could not sell out the Daytona 500.
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I am not nor was I ever a Earnhardt fan but I don't think restrictor plates killed Big E.
 
BigdaddyQH said:
It is boring and it is costing Nascar many fans. They could not sell out the Daytona 500.
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I am not a restrictor plate racing fan by any means. The restrictor plate races are death traps.

But it's not costing fans. It's not hurting the fanbase. It's not the reason the 500 didn't sell out.

In case you haven't noticed, television ratings are down for every professional sport (including the almighty NFL). In case you haven't turned on the news anytime in the past 8 months, the economy is the Daytona didn't sell out. :rolleyes:
 
BigdaddyQH said:
Plate racing is here to stay. It sucks. Earnhart was killed in a plate race, so please do not hand me any B.S. about them being safer. If anything they make the racing more dangerous because there is more of a chance that a big one will collect many cars. If Nascar is so afraid of speed, why can they go faster at 1 1/2 mikle tracks? Just restrict the engine size if you must, but plate racing is nothing more than driving around in a circle, trying to avoid the big one, and then making a move on the last lap. It is boring and it is costing Nascar many fans. They could not sell out the Daytona 500.
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Earnhart died because he refused to wear the safety equipment that most likely would have kept him from breaking his neck. Yes, the plates slow the field and bunch the cars up which in my opinion makes for great racing. I guess that is better than having one go airborne at 230 miles per hour.
 
The "big one", safety, boring racing, I've heard it all before. Now as a race fan, I certainly don't want to see anyone killed out there which is something that I've witnessed more than once, but such is the danger in this sport. We all know that there are thousands of people who watch racing just to see big wrecks, and if you doubt that, just look at how popular the DVD's are that show only racing wrecks. How many times have we as fans reran a wreck just to see how bad it was? The bigger the carnage, the more sensational it is. So using the "big one" as an excuse just won't cut it. Satety, again, auto racing is inherently dangerous and every driver knows this. These cars get safer and safer all the time and again, we fans who go back and watch wrecks over and over are amazed at how drivers can walk away from such carnage. Boring racing, if follow the leader is your definition of great racing, you aren't in the majority. Anytime a race is follow the leader, it gets the worst rating of all.

As humans, I believe that we naturally love to watch dangerous sports or events. Though boxing is now not quite as popular as it has been in the past, it was a huge sport for many years. The old Romans love to watch the gladiators fight to the death. Now auto racing is not boxing or gladiators fighting in an arena, but yet when you look closer, there are more similarities than not. Each are one man taking on others individually rather than in a team sport. Yes, I know, racing is a team sport, but when you look at the points, you don't see the name of the team, it's the individual driver.

Bigdaddy says that plate racing is the cause of empty seats at Daytona. Sorry pal, that isn't the reason. He says the races are boring. I wonder what excites him. He says it was restrictor plates that caused the death of Dale Earnhardt. What about Kenny Irwin, not to mention the blocking that DE did on that fatal day. Finally I wonder if Bigdaddy watches any of the plate races. If so, then the question is why?

As for me, I'll say it again. Plate racing gives us closer racing, edge of the seat excitment, and a very unpredictable result. I believe that only Bristol and Martinsville will give you anything close to that.
 
I like plate racing. Like buckaroo says, closer racing, edge of the seat excitment, and a very unpredictable result.
 
Bigdaddy says that plate racing is the cause of empty seats at Daytona. Sorry pal, that isn't the reason. He says the races are boring. I wonder what excites him. He says it was restrictor plates that caused the death of Dale Earnhardt. What about Kenny Irwin, not to mention the blocking that DE did on that fatal day. Finally I wonder if Bigdaddy watches any of the plate races. If so, then the question is why?
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I so badly wanted to say the same thing but thought I would get flamed. Big E blocked before but always while he was trying to win a race. I do believe that was the first time he ever did it so someone else could win a race...
 
Smoke14 said:
I so badly wanted to say the same thing but thought I would get flamed. Big E blocked before but always while he was trying to win a race. I do believe that was the first time he ever did it so someone else could win a race...
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The wife and I were there at Daytona in 2001 and witnessed the end of DE. One of the last things that DE said over his radio was something like this... "Tell that SOB Waltrip that I'm back here blocking for him". Only caught just that little bit and then we went to another channel. Couldn't believe what had happened but it didn't surprise me that he was blocking for the teams that he owned. Had he been a little further forward, I do believe that he wouldn't have blocked and would have gone for the win. Might have saved his life and we might today be chatting about whether or not he should retire.
 
buckaroo said:
The wife and I were there at Daytona in 2001 and witnessed the end of DE. One of the last things that DE said over his radio was something like this... "Tell that SOB Waltrip that I'm back here blocking for him". Only caught just that little bit and then we went to another channel. Couldn't believe what had happened but it didn't surprise me that he was blocking for the teams that he owned. Had he been a little further forward, I do believe that he wouldn't have blocked and would have gone for the win. Might have saved his life and we might today be chatting about whether or not he should retire.
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I hear what you are saying. Should have... Could have... Would have... You just never know when your marker will be called in. My wife was quite astute that day. We were watching the race on TV and when the wreck happened she freaked out. She had always been a Big E fan. I told her that crash wasn't a big deal. Then the cameras quit covering it and I knew it was over....
 
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