Restrictor plates - point and counterpoint

S

stridsberry

Guest
Both columns are from about.com. Here is the PRO column...


Plate racing is just another form of NASCAR racing

Each year the NASCAR Winston Cup stars run four restrictor plate races, two in Daytona and two more in Talladega. This close lugnut-to-lugnut racing is always exciting for the fans and controversial for the drivers.

The restrictor plate is a thin aluminum plate that fits between carburetor and the intake manifold. This plate limits the amount of air that can enter the engine, less air equals less horsepower and slower, safer races. In May of 1987 Bobby Allison lost control of his racecar and wrecked down the front stretch at Talladega. His car became airborne and spun violently into the catch fence in front of the crowd in the stands. There was only a little chain link and a whole bunch of luck that prevented Bobby's car from getting into the grandstand and killing hundreds of spectators that day.

Beginning with the Daytona 500 in 1988 NASCAR mandated the use of restrictor plates in an attempt to slow the cars down to improve safety. Since then every Winston Cup race held at either Daytona or Talladega has featured close fan friendly racing with an exciting finish.

Now in a related guest column Joel Wyatt seems to connect speed with the quality of the race. Heck for once I agree with him. At 210mph the drivers would not be able to run door to door, however at 180mph the cars are a little more stable and the drivers are able to put on a great side by side racing display.

It is great racing that has made this the greatest sport in the world and restrictor plates live up to that billing. It is just a different type of racing, and thank God for that. I'm getting sick of 1.5 to 2 mile D shaped ovals. NASCAR needs variety! The restrictor plates cause the driver to think differently about how to win the race. It's drafting, positioning, pit strategy and teamwork that win at the superspeedways. The drivers do not use the same strategy at Sears Point that they do at Charlotte, then when they go to Martinsville it's a whole new ball game again. So why not have another completely unique type of racing on the schedule?

The restrictor plate races are just another aspect of NASCAR, one more thing that you must master if you want to be called the Winston Cup Champion.

Steve McCormick
 
...and the CON column.


RESTRICTORS are RUINING RACING
Before I get on my soapbox, this IS a personal opinion. You are not bound by any law stating you have to agree. With that disclaimer out of the way, let's get started.

In my Webster's Dictionary, copyrighted 1986, "race" is defined as "a contest of speed". So why would our executive friends at NASCAR want to use "restrictor" plates. With all the media attention and corporate bucks, I am starting to think the reason is to slow the cars down so everyone can see the sponsors on the cars. It just has to be that! Remember back in the good ole days when Bill Elliot broke the 200 mph lap? What a joyous day that was. Smiles every where! Not to long after that and very much respect to them, the older drivers were saying "we need to slow the cars down". Boy did they get their wish! With the invention of the restrictor plate which now has holes the size of four home grown pecans, not only did we slow the cars, but we've turned our favorite drivers into nothing more than robots. (Note the correlation given...restrictor plate = nuts!) We have changed the saying from "Go Fast, Turn Left" to "Go restricted, Stay Together". Yes, I will contend that the little plate has caused a more tighter crowd/audience pleasing sport venture, but where is the "race"? The biggest race on a restrictor plate outing now is who can get into, serviced and out of the pits the quickest. Our drivers do not get to "race" any longer with these restricting jewels. Their only job is to, and I quote from every driver, "keep the car out of trouble", a feat in itself! When was the last time you heard "I wanna race"? You won't because they can't. They are to restricted! The pit road commentators report the same story from every pit; gas, tires, draft and pit strategy. No racing to report. Now, we can look at this another way. Safety! Could the cars handle a 220 mph impact?

I doubt it. But, without the restrictor plate, a driver couldn't go flat footed all the way around the track either! The driver would have to lift going into the corner just like on short/shorter tracks. Hence, putting the driver back to his job...DRIVING! And it would also bring back the "race" aspect. OK, how about tires. Could the Goodyear Eagles handle the higher speeds? I have faith in our little rubber buddies that some where back in a deep dark closet is a tire ready to go. If they don't have one, I'm sure they have the smarts to make it! Ok, even I'll admit I enjoy some of the tightness in restrictor plates ballets, but how good is a group of cars when one starts spinning and it takes one forth to one third of the cars out of contention or at worst the "race"?

I love my NASCAR. I love a good "race". Let our boys do what we pay them to do, RACE! If we could let them "race" then I won't have to get a new restricted dictionary.

Joel Wyatt
 
On a quasi-related note, I remember something that Dave Marcis said in the book American Zoom. I think he said that adding the plates originally was fine, but the mistake was allowing teams to try to work around them, and that if they hadn't allowed that, no more changes would have had to be made. And this was back in 1991. Just thought I'd throw that out there too, to see if anyone has anything to say about it.
 
I agree with Dave's remark.Contrary to popular opinion(and the 'con' opinion quoted above)restricting the SPEED doesnt neccesarily have to 'ruin' the racing,and has absolutely no bearing on the competivness of the race.Speed,itself,has no bearing on racing.The Kentucky Derby is a race after all.

So,if we look at it in the common sense way:Slowing the speed of a race really doesnt take anything away from the racing.

The problem lies in the manner in which the speed is reduced.And although the plates do in fact slow the speeds...they do so at the sacrifice of other factors that DO affect the competivness of racing.Such as driver input.

Mark Martin once said something to the effect that all his years of skill and experience meant nothing at the plate races.Why?The restictor plate----the way Nascar has chosen to reduce speed.A potent way to do so,but other methods should be looked into ,imo.

I would suggest Nascar attempt to hold the speed about where it is now...but put driver input back into the race.This and only this will improve the racing.Look into tires,aero-packages or smaller displacement motors.Or all three.

So I split down the middle from either opinion above.Racing is as good at 100 mph as it can be at 200 mph.It just depends on the man in the man-and-machine equation.Thats my opinion anyway.The definition of race should'nt even mention the word speed.Great racing,yeah.Great speed isnt neccesary.



:salute:
 
I think that the biggest change that should be made has to do with frontal downforce. They should raise the front airdam to 5 or 6 inches, but the big thing that should be done is to mandate much stiffer front springs for the front suspension - say 1500 lbs of resistance. It makes no difference how high you raise the air dam if teams can just get softer springs and put it down on the ground again. That alone should allow for the plate to be opened up more, since the increased drag and decreased downforce would slow the cars and might force drivers to lift in the corners.

An idea my dad has floated is to make the tires about an inch thinner. This would reduce traction in the corners so that drivers have to lift in the corners. They could than run unrestricted, since they would have to run slower in the corners anyway. The only roadblock would be making sure the thinner tires could still support 3500 lb. cars without shredding constantly.
 
Ok... we have hashed this out so many times it is getting really tired! There are OBVIOUS things Nascar can do , but won't, they want this kind of racing. It puts fans in the stands, especially new ones that don't know what "REAL" racing is. Nascar won't change this any time soon, we will have to put up with it 4 times/year for the forseeable future....unless of course we boycott the plate races....like that will happen! :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
the original question, point and counterpoint on plate racing:

Racing at both Talledega and Daytona involved playing the drafting game before plates came along. There were a couple of notable exceptions, well maybe only one really notable exception, but that is a different discussion.

The biggest change that plates made and continue to make is simply that more cars can play the game. That very might have eventually worked out anyway as few can deny that there are more competitive cars now than there were back in the mid 80"s. If you go back and watch the first few years of plate racing you'll probably see evidence of this.

NASCAR takes a little heat for allowing teams to work around the plate according to Mr. Marcis. Not sure how they could have prevented it, as that is the teams job. Without knowing exactly what innovations he is referring to, the statement he made probably applies to every track, not just the plate tracks.

With the aerodynamics, the draft and the handling these cars are capable of nowadays any fix is likely to either yield more of the same, or turn the tracks into one groove merry-go-rounds.

Drivers still have a lot of input, but because of the draft a mistake by a driver is more quickly undone, provided of course it does not result in crumpling the car. How often have you heard folks comment on how "good" DE was at using the air? And the stats speak for the success he had doing it. If the driver is out of the equation, how could that be?

It is a different skill set from a short track, a road course, or one of the speedways, but it is a driver skill set.

OTOH, it is not my favorite racing, but it is racing. There's race cars, fans, officials, green flags, yellow flags, and just about everything else that is commonly found at a race.
 
Point: Plates gotta go.
Counter Point: Plates gotta go.

Sounds good to me.

BTW, plates aren't the only way to keep the speeds down. There are other ways that have been posted to death that will result in lower speeds AND engines acting like engines...allowing some separation on the track...w/o stupid 13 gal (give or take) fuel cells.
 
Point: Saves lives
Counter Point: Only allows the drivers to drive, not race

I will take the lives over the quality of racing.

Kel
 
Originally posted by DJFan@Apr 4 2003, 06:51 AM
Point: Saves lives


Kel
Click to expand...
Racing is dangerous. Plates do not make it safer. Plates make it more hectic, tedious and less interesting.. Engineering saves lives.
 
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