Where is the ball?

S

SST55

Guest
Following the latest at Talladega who has the ball? Is it in the drivers court? We've heard from several drivers [paraphrased] 'this is crazy, somebody is going to get killed'. A single car team losing a car has to hurt. Even the multi car teams who lost two or more cars is going to feel it. Will the team owners say enough is enough? Will na$car finally do something other than another band aid and take two aspirin "fix"?

They went from big blocks to small blocks and the racing didn't suffer, maybe it's time to go to the smaller small block, the 302 format. Or crate engines, sorry Toyota. Or a tire that'll go the entire race, hard as a rock requiring drivers to actually drive rather than flat foot it lap after lap after lap.

I dislike change but before we go through another Feb 2001 or a driver gets his brains scrambled beyond the ability to heal 100% na$car has to do something. Ball's in their court.

FWIW A 747 rotates and takes off, depending on varient and load, at 160-180, we've got a car going 20 mph faster in a circle!

sliding the soapbox back under the bed.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I think its BS to try to blame any of what's going on today on restrictor plate racing. Bad wrecks happen everywhere.
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I think the Talladega issue was pretty much shot to sh*t when he said he was injured at Kansas. As far as the question though, it's always in the drivers hands. They're the ones with the pedals and steering wheels.
 
Thegroundpounder99 said:
I think the Talladega issue was pretty much shot to sh*t when he said he was injured at Kansas. As far as the question though, it's always in the drivers hands. They're the ones with the pedals and steering wheels.
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Exactly.

I just got done listening to Rickey Craven about this issue. Many seem to think that his head injury was from that famous pic that we all have seen. It wasn't though. It was from 3 successive wrecks. The last being on a 1.5er.

Wrecks will continue to happen on all tracks. Drivers will continue to get hurt and lessons will be learned about making things safer.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I think its BS to try to blame any of what's going on today on restrictor plate racing. Bad wrecks happen everywhere.
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Agreed. And Jr's concussion happened at the Kansas tire test and was exacerbated at Talladega. Should tire testing be banned?
 
Wait, I thought this thread was about Jr's balls and passed it over.

I can't wait until avatars become reality and we all can stop worrying about Jr's cranium.
 
FenderBumper said:
Huh? Braking, or the lack thereof, had nothing to do with anything that happened.
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Not having to ever brake enables these guy fly around in formation for the entire race. If they had to brake, then they wouldn't be able to bunch up like they do and we wouldn't have 20 car pileups.
 
sloggie said:
Not having to ever brake enables these guy fly around in formation for the entire race. If they had to brake, then they wouldn't be able to bunch up like they do and we wouldn't have 20 car pileups.
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It was a 2 lap GWC. Nobody was going to brake. Braking 4 wide and packed together would just make things worse.
 
They should tear Talladega down and turn it in to a half mile short track. In fact, they should also do the same thing with Kansas Speedway and any other oval on the circuit that's bigger than one mile. :)
 
sloggie said:
It's not BS. The problem is simple and unique to restrictor plate tracks: The drivers don't have to brake.
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It's not NECESSARILY forcing the drivers to use their brakes - but forcing them to lift off of the throttle in the turns that will make all of the difference, IMO. If they had to hit the brakes in order to make it thru the turns, all the better.

Whether that be done thru lower down-force, harder tires, a wet track, it doesn't matter. When 43 drivers (ok, maybe 35 drivers) can run an entire segment without ever having to lift, there will never be any separation in the field and we will continue to see huge packs of cars running door-to-door.

Exciting? Hells Yes!
Racing? Hells No!
 
The biggest problem with Talladega and Daytona isn't the banking, it isn't the tires, it isn't the grip. It's the parity. Over the years, NASCAR has bent over backwards to sooth whining car owners and manufacturers and make changes so that no one make can go faster than the other make. Aerodynamically, all the cars are equal, and as such, can't get away from each other. This is the main reason why the packs seem larger now, more encompassing than they did years ago.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Exactly.

I just got done listening to Rickey Craven about this issue. Many seem to think that his head injury was from that famous pic that we all have seen. It wasn't though. It was from 3 successive wrecks. The last being on a 1.5er.

Wrecks will continue to happen on all tracks. Drivers will continue to get hurt and lessons will be learned about making things safer.
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The same with steve parks brain damage, 3rd concussion was the last and worst, although the last one was extremely serious, dangerous and almost killed him. The first 2 contributed to it. In my opinion wrecks and injuries are going to happen and the drivers are well aware of and accept the risks.
 
Every driver that straps in to a racecar at any level understands the risks and accepts them. The risks are high at any track, reguardless of size and speed. We could go through the scenerios all day. Steve Park's accident that Johali mentioned happened under caution, it just shows the risk is great any time your strapped in. We've had drivers injured and lost at short tracks, super speedways, road courses, and 1.5 mile's. It's safer than it's ever been to race a car, it'll never be safe though.
 
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