Why do a lot of you guys hate plate racing?

Marcingak said:
The main reason is because it takes more luck than skill.
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I would agree. But if you look at the last race Dale Sr. won at Talladega, he came from 16th with five laps to go to win it. On that day his skill really kicked in, and he was lucky not to get caught up in another drivers mess. I guess sometimes it's more luck, sometimes it more skill. On that day it was a little of each. Plus having Kenny Wallace pushing him didn't hinder him any either.
 
He could be right when you consider most run with the expectation of "win or wreck."
Back then drivers "got the best finish they could".
 
Team Penske said:
He could be right when you consider most run with the expectation of "win or wreck."
Back then drivers "got the best finish they could".
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Who is he planning on crushing? Himself? He was racing 10 years ago, so was Jimmie, Kyle,Truex, Kahne etc..... And if he thinks the older guys like Earnhardt,Wallace,Irvan,Marlin,Waltrip etc... couldnt figure this out hes not very smart.
 
Snowman said:
Point 2: More talented than "no talent" drivers win more often then not.
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Cool.

It happens at Daytona and Talladega more often than any other racetrack.

Stenhouse last year had 2 wins: Talladega spring and Daytona summer. In the other 32 race events on the schedule, his next best finishes were 2 4ths. There were no other top 7 finishes all year.

David Ragan, a guy that should've been out of the series long ago IMO because he wasn't good enough, his 2 career wins were at Daytona and Talladega. Last year's finishes at restrictor plate races: 25th, 10th, 6th, 10th . He had 5 finishes in the other 32 races of the year that were in the top 20 - with a best finish of 17th four times. He finished 30th in points.

Disregarding events that happen where strategy can get you a win (rain, fuel mileage, etc.), talking purely racetracks where all of them are having a sunny day, what other tracks on the NASCAR Cup circuit require less talent to win at in your opinion than Daytona and Talladega?

The year Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500, it was 14 races he drove til he got his next top 15 finish, 18 races later til he got a top 10, and you have to go all the way to the spring Bristol race in 2016 to find his next top 5 after winning the 2011 Daytona 500, 95 races later. That is the embodiment of complete fluke win, with no rain, fuel mileage, or anything involved. Bayne's win is a shining statue for this argument, with Derrike Cope standing alongside.
 
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Privateer said:
Cool.

It happens at Daytona and Talladega more often than any other racetrack.

Stenhouse last year had 2 wins: Talladega spring and Daytona summer. In the other 32 race events on the schedule, his next best finishes were 2 4ths. There were no other top 7 finishes all year.

David Ragan, a guy that should've been out of the series long ago IMO because he wasn't good enough, his 2 career wins were at Daytona and Talladega. Last year's finishes at restrictor plate races: 25th, 10th, 6th, 10th . He had 5 finishes in the other 32 races of the year that were in the top 20 - with a best finish of 17th four times. He finished 30th in points.

Disregarding events that happen where strategy can get you a win (rain, fuel mileage, etc.), talking purely racetracks where all of them are having a sunny day, what other tracks on the NASCAR Cup circuit require less talent to win at in your opinion than Daytona and Talladega?

The year Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500, it was 14 races he drove til he got his next top 15 finish, 18 races later til he got a top 10, and you have to go all the way to the spring Bristol race in 2016 to find his next top 5 after winning the 2011 Daytona 500, 95 races later. That is the embodiment of complete fluke win, with no rain, fuel mileage, or anything involved. Bayne's win is a shining statue for this argument, with Derrike Cope standing alongside.
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How did Cope get to second place to take advantage of Earnhardt cutting a tire?
 
Snowman said:
Point 1: This is motorsports, the driver and/or team with the most resources has the most chances to succeed. You can say the same thing about sports in general.

Point 2: More talented than "no talent" drivers win more often then not. I remember rookie Logano winning a rain shortened race, also Chris Buscher. How about Regan Smith winning FRR's first race at Darlington on pit strategy? A wins a win whether it's a plate race, a rain shortened race, a fuel mileage race, or a pit strategy race the record book will say Buscher has one Cup win, Logano is the youngest winner in Cup, Smith got FRR their first win and Cope won the Daytona 500. Whether they were the best driver that day or they deserve to have won it or not, the fact of the matter is they did.
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While the better funded teams always have and always will do better than the rest I always enjoy seeing an underdog get a win regardless of how they do it. I like the old adage that anyone can win any given race - that's why we watch.
 
Spotter22 said:
How did Cope get to second place to take advantage of Earnhardt cutting a tire?
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Cope really started coming on strong at the end of the 89 season. One of his biggest assets was his crew chief. When Buddy Parrot came on board, Cope started hanging around the front. A guy that consistently runs up front is going to win. Cope won because he was in a position to win. It wasn't Dales day. His bad luck became Copes good fortune. Cope backed it up with another win at Dover.
 
mack said:
Cope really started coming on strong at the end of the 89 season. One of his biggest assets was his crew chief. When Buddy Parrot came on board, Cope started hanging around the front. A guy that consistently runs up front is going to win. Cope won because he was in a position to win. It wasn't Dales day. His bad luck became Copes good fortune. Cope backed it up with another win at Dover.
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Exactly
 
I keep seeing this thread and reading it as Penske Racing and my first thought before "ohh right plate racing" is "it's called Team Penske now!"

Lol
 
so plate racing isnt the same thing as when richard petty had more money and better can than anyone else? how is he king on that term and gets respect but a guy that wins a plate race dont get the respect or called lucky? i know its alot that goes into plate racing and u need some luck this that and the 3rd , but back in the day petty car was beyond better than anyone's and he had more money big sponsorship so how is this different?
 
I used to be a big fan of it. I guess with age I began to appreciate raw driving skills and the actual strategies that go into every other races.

NASCAR putting their hands on the scales didn't help with all the nonsense yellow lines and where you can push, where you can pass or where you can go.
 
What's the one Busch/Nationwide race where the Big One happened on like lap 5 and then 2 cars finished on the lead lap because the whole field wrecked?

That'd be worse nowadays due to the time limits on repairing cars. Kind of hope it happens someday to show what a farce the whole thing is.

We can then tackle it from the financial perspective from a series not as up on money as they once were. You have a major engine building department expense to develop an engine for 4 races, qualifying, a meaningless Thursday qualifying race because only 40 cars showed up, and if you're a good team the preseason Clash. Then if you do wreck a car, it's probably a writeoff because you're crashing and getting crashed into at 180+ mph. Step back for a second and grasp all that in an era of less available money and the back third of the grid are all available for ride buys. This whole setup would've never been allowed except the family that owned the 2 tracks also owns the series. No track owned by anyone else would've ever been able to get NASCAR as a sanctioning body to accept that.

And all this about we need to reduce the horsepower at places like Indianapolis so we can spice up the show. Okay, ditch the V8 and race a V6. I and everyone on here knows they'll never do that, but we're spending excess amounts of money to turn a V8 into a souped-up V6 when it comes to power development.
 
Spotter22 said:
How did Cope get to second place to take advantage of Earnhardt cutting a tire?
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Just like most 30 place racers that win at a RP track. In his case he was just drafting with DE and got a lucky break.
The other most common fluke in Nascar is when they get 5 restarts in the last 2 laps and the odds are the 2nd place car gets lucky. I would rather see a race finish under caution than see Nascar give a driver 2-5 chances to beat the leader.
 
Team Penske said:
Just like most 30 place racers that win at a RP track. In his case he was just drafting with DE and got a lucky break.
The other most common fluke in Nascar is when they get 5 restarts in the last 2 laps and the odds are the 2nd place car gets lucky. I would rather see a race finish under caution than see Nascar give a driver 2-5 chances to beat the leader.
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Cope ran upfront all day and back when they had these plates it wasnt pack racing like you see now.
 
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Thegeneral23 said:
so plate racing isnt the same thing as when richard petty had more money and better can than anyone else? how is he king on that term and gets respect but a guy that wins a plate race dont get the respect or called lucky? i know its alot that goes into plate racing and u need some luck this that and the 3rd , but back in the day petty car was beyond better than anyone's and he had more money big sponsorship so how is this different?
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Richard Petty didn't win every race he entered, but he won his fair share. He had good factory support from Chrysler, and the STP money didn't hurt either. Petty won a lot because of his approach to racing. Here's a quote from Petty, " Luck is where opportunity meets preparation or preparation meets opportunity". That same approach is still winning races today. In the late sixties up into the early eighties Petty Enterprises probably could out spend most of the competition. Time has passed and now other people are spending more. As far as which is the most important between luck vs skill, It takes a little of both,
 
Spotter22 said:
Cope ran upfront all day and back when they had these plates it wasnt pack racing like you see now.
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Which is why I said plate racing USED to be tolerable. It was much better when the good cars could separate from the pack and settle it amongst themselves. Before the last caution came out, there were 7-8 cars on the lead lap, and Earnhardt had like a half lap lead. The caution came out with less than 10 to go, Cope stayed on the track and took the lead. Earnhardt passed him on the restart and was of course leading when the tire blew. If Cope's reflexes had been a little slower, he would have likely plowed into Earnhardt and given the race to Terry Labonte.
 
mack said:
I agree. I seem to recall Harry Gants team mate Rick Mast pushing Harry across the finish line at Talladega in 1991. If I recall correctly, Harry was out of gas.
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If I remember right Harry had run out of gas and Rick pushed him around almost to the finish line and then backed off as it wouldn't have counted if he got pushed over the stripe. Even if Im wrong its a good story hahaha.
 
The recent versions of plate racing has become terrible. The G-W-C rule hasn't helped. It's basically created NASCAR's version of insanity. I think the biggest issue with the plate racing of the last 5-10 years is the lack of fear among the drivers. These guys are willing to take risks/block in ways that simply didn't occur 15+ years ago. Back in the day if you screwed up at a Daytona/Talladega you were an outcast in the garage for a few weeks. Swirvin' Irvan had to address his peers at Talladega for his "wreckless" driving in the early 90's. Was he "wreckless"? In hindsight not really. But he would force the issue in it bit him and his competitors a couple of times. Now anything goes the last 10 laps!

I miss the plate era when cars would get single file and create their own little mini packs. That as especially the case in '88, '89 and '90. There were even a few great 1 on 1 plate race duels back in the day. Earnhardt and Sacks had an all-timer at 'Dega in 1990 iirc.

I watched the '88 and '89 Daytona 500s on Youtube this week!! So freakin cool!
 
AtomicPunk55 said:
If I remember right Harry had run out of gas and Rick pushed him around almost to the finish line and then backed off as it wouldn't have counted if he got pushed over the stripe. Even if Im wrong its a good story hahaha.
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And don't forget, that push across the finish line was for the win. One of the Skoal Bandits four in a row that year.
 
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