NASCAR Missed the Boat at Talladega

Tuesday, November 10, 2009


NASCAR Missed the Boat at Talladega

Cars have been crashing and wrecking in NASCAR for all of the years of its existence. In fact, if most of the fan base was honest, they would admit, that’s why they watch racing: for the wrecks. So, what makes the wreck with Carl Edwards so different this past spring at Talladega? The injury to Blake Bobbitt, the 18 year old young lady featured prior to the race this week in a very poignant story about her recovery from the injury.

After that violent wreck into the catchfence, NASCAR was determined to make changes to the fall race to insure the safety of both fans and drivers. They raised the fence from 14ft to 22 ft and reduced the restrictor plates a little more but then at the last second a new rule was issued in the drivers meeting.

With the sole goal of preventing any more wrecks that are so affectionately called the “big ones”, Mike Helton, the president of NASCAR spoke to the drivers at the drivers meeting Sunday and explained, “One of the things we want to make clear in this drivers meeting that will be part of us regulating the race today is what that means in the turns. I think you got a taste of it on Friday, but today we will not allow doubling-up, pushing, locked up, bump drafting or whatever you call it in the turns. So, all the way through turns 1 and 2, all the way through turns 3 and 4, you will not be allowed to push someone, to bump draft them or to shove them through the turns. Remember the aggressive driving will still be watched very closely on the frontstretch and through the trioval. We have seen the progress, particularly in Talladega of two cars hooking up and basically locked up all the way around for a lap. You will not be allowed to do that through the turns. That's from the green flag all the way through the checkered flag. So even on the last lap, coming through (turns) 3 and 4, you're not going to be able to push a guy or hook up in a two-car tandem like we've seen progress through practice.”

Juan Pablo Montoya queried Helton about how it was going to be regulated, “If somebody passes you on the last lap ... and they're hooked up in 3 and 4, you're going to do something about it. You guarantee you're going to do something about it… If the guy being penalized is in Victory Lane?” And Helton replied, “: Then we'll figure that out before. We've got 2.6 miles to get the word to them. To Juan's point if the race winner or the guy that takes the checkered has got that position by drafting up through the turns and you could be the guy in front, then that's going to be an issue with us. The guy from the back will catch the penalty most all the time but if you win the race by drafting through 1 and 2 with help then you're going to have a problem and the guy that pushed you is going to have a problem.”

As one of the announcers pointed out, when Mike Helton speaks the drivers listen. And they sure did as Helton stated, “…we want to see sunshine between the cars is in 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.” Every single driver took that statement completely to heart as Helton further explained after Montoya asked exactly what the penalty might be, “We'll just make that clear now. It will be a drive through penalty if you do it during the race   for the first incident. The second one, we'll be ... we'll decide.”

But, racers never cease to amaze me! After trying to dice it up a little bit for the first 20 laps or so, Casey Mears and Kevin Harvick took first and second respectively with Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. In one of the strangest moves I’ve ever seen by a field of cars, on Lap 25 all the cars were lined up in a single file going around the track with almost equal distance between them as if to say, “see, there’s plenty of sunshine (Birmingham News Photo)     between these bumpers! Is this the show you want to put on now?” And it was at that moment I realized we had ourselves a rolling boycott! The announcers debated the strategies but it was Dale Jarrett who pointed out the obvious: this was the drivers’ answer to the sudden last minute orders. Now, that’s a driver reading the drivers.

Of course , it didn’t last forever as a caution always comes out but the drivers pulled it off again twice for many laps. And it produced exactly the results they hoped it would: boring racing. Yet, STILL the wrecks happened. Ryan Newman who was livid in his post-wreck interview stated, "It's not even a good race for the fans -- that's the bottom line -- that's who we're trying to service is the fans. They can stand up and cheer when there's three [laps] to go with a green-white-checkered [finish], but that's not racing. You're supposed to be racing all day long. And I think we've lost a little bit of that luster." Newman had just been cut out of his car after being drilled by Brad Keselowski in the closing laps, which sent Newman pirouetting onto Kevin Harvick’s hood and landing upside down in the infield.

Newman continued to spout his frustrations, "It's just a product of this racing and what NASCAR's put us in, in this box with these types of cars, with the yellow line, with no bump-drafting, no passing. Drivers used to be able to respect each other and race around each other -- Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, all those guys have always done that. I guess they don't think much of us anymore." And then Newman was very direct and honest, "It was a boring race for the fans. That's not something anybody wants to see, at least I hope not. If they do, go home because you don't belong here."

But in the long run, NASCAR completely missed the boat. The very thing that has caused these horrific accidents is blocking. Even Carl Edwards said so after his accident in the spring race, when he said, “"I did learn something about the end of the race -- block once, but I probably won't block twice.” THAT is the key: BLOCKING! The local short tracks penalize drivers for blocking because it’s too dangerous. Now every driver worth his salt knows how to protect his position but the double block on a high speed super speedway will get you in trouble every time, unless your like Regan Smith and will take the sacrifice.

What would have been better for Helton to announce in that drivers meeting would have been NO BLOCKING and to cut out the wild lane changing antics. That would have been more manageable. Those are the moves that cost the race and that’s how NASCAR missed the boat. The drivers showed them too that they won’t stand to be treated with so little respect or they’ll produce very little. Time to wake up NASCAR. Bravo for the drivers for expressing themselves in a way NASCAR understands.