On Friday I was hanging out, checking out the telecast of the NASCAR Cup practice sessions at Talladega on SPEED.
I had missed the first practice session where apparently drivers were too eager and there were a few issues and car spins and some damage done.
I tuned in on the 2nd practice session where they were being more conservative. But it turned out, the conservative nature of the session was being enforced by NASCAR.
NASCAR kept handing out warnings when cars started snugging up, nose to tail, in a draft while they were in the corners. There were a lot of warnings.
In fact they warned Michael Waltrip once in a corner, then within a few laps, they parked Waltrip for a few minutes because he did it again. Then again, he was snugging up against Jimmie Johnson. That would have been brilliant if something happened to Johnson in practice!
I found myself on both sides of the coin on this one.
I get trying to keep the competitors from wrecking in practice, but then what was the point of practice if they couldn’t test car reactions to the draft?
This race weekend, NASCAR has reduced the restrictor plate to slow the cars down in response to safety concerns about the cars getting airborne. I think it’s an empty gesture since the cars are still moving fast enough to do the things they do when they get out of shape. Plus, this new smaller plate hole will cause even more bunching up than usual. Which if you ask me, I’m not sure we’ll notice, being as how they bunch up to begin with.
But now I am wondering if they’re going to be doing this all day long in the races, telling everyone to back off and not bump draft in the corners. We’ve seen what can happen when the pros get too anxious or something unanticipated takes place, but this could become a travesty of a competition if NASCAR doesn’t let the racers mix it up during the events. Otherwise, we’ll be talking about the race that had moma’s apron strings attached.
But then, this is the beast they call restrictor plate events. Controlled insanity.
