What to do, what to do?
I have given some thought to this, but I can't come up with an answer that will satisfy every race fan out there. Maybe if we pool our thoughts we can come up with a good idea. Here's the question:What to do with Daytona and Talledega?The speed at these tracks will not allow NASCAR to remove the restrictor plates... no matter how much we wish they could. The speeds have to be no more than 195 mph to ensure fans and driver safety. There have been ideas like lower the engine size, narrow the tires, lower the aero grip, and my favorite, lower the banking. These ideas will all work but they leave us all with the feeling the the racing will suffer if any are used. I can't picture NASCAR without racing at both Daytona and Talledega. So much history and great racing in the past, but the racing today does not resemble the racing we so fondly remember. What needs to be done to bring back great racing at these two tracks.What are your ideas? And please, none of that "Let Em Race" stuff. We all know that isn't possible.
I do like the idea of lowering the banking down to about 25 degrees, but if they do that we are left with something close to Indy and I don't think that is an improvement. A narrow tire would reduce grip and force the drivers to lift and give the real drivers a chance to shine. A boxier car may help a little, but the COT is ugly enough. Less cubic inches would work in the short term but at a huge cost to the owners. What to do, what to do???
I think stock bodies would do it. Only problem the driver with the whitest knuckles would win and it would be hard to go 500 miles living that kind of fear. It would slow them down, though.Pete
The answer is very simple gentleman. Let the stock cars run the "road circuit" already in place at both tracks.The big beef with stock car fans and road circuits is that they can not see the entire race (yep, we are a simple minded people). Well, you can see the entire track at these two super speedways.One of the things I enjoyed most about doing the Vintage/Historic racing thing was actually being on track with retired stock cars (retired after a year or so at the top series of NASCAR - whatever that is called this week) at Daytona running the road circuit. These 800 HP monsters are simply awesome going up and down the gears at a road circuit.Plus road racing is a great equalizer for driver talent and funding (or lack thereof).
I still feel like the answers to this dilemma is fairly easy, while the logististics may not be: the only one suggestion that i have a definite NO to is to lower the bankings, they've been racing on it since Lee won the 1st race, no need to change it. my suggestions are these: #1. make the cars HEAVIER, say 500-600 lbs. you never saw the cars(w/o restrictor plates) get airborne in the 70's simlpy by spinning on their own, they had to hit something or dig into the infield grass before the barrel-rolls would happen. the aerial flights did not start happening until the switch to smaller, LIGHTER cars, i.e. Cale Yarborough & Bobby Allison, I can remember '81 Daytona practice and Connie Saylor slid backwards off 2 and launched like an airplane at take-off. He did not hit anything, it caught air all on its own. heavier cars would be less apt for the space race #2 A little more wheelbase may make handling a bit more forgiving #3 Make these cars DIRTY, DIRTY, DIRTY... and all the sudden HEY, I can slingshot on my own!! ..................................................................................................................................................... now heavier cars would call for goodyear to make stouter tire technology, teams would have to come up w/ more heavy-duty suspensions, and wholesale body conversions would be needed, but didn't that already happen every 3-4 years? as i said before, the heavier, longer 70's cars raced w/o plates with no need for an air-traffic controller. great post, Bumpertag
Sounds good, but I don't think the speed was over 195 except at the end of the straights. NASCAR needs to find a way to make the drivers lift. The track, or the cars, must not allow "Foot on the floor" racing. If a rules change alone can do that, I'm all for it. Looking at the technology today and the dependence on aero grip, I don't see an easy answer. Heavy cars will help some, dirty cars may help a little more, but I can't see that fixing the issue of bad races and flying cars.In my mind, Daytona and Talladega are some of the worst racing on the schedule today. I know, I'm probablly the only one that feels that way, but I'd rather help my wife do housework that watch those races. 1 big cluster of cars, 3 and 4 wide. No room to pass, follow the leader and hope your line moves. That ain't racing... not like I remember.
yeah, i'm not a fan of having to have help to pass. cutting bankings down may swing the racing 180 degrees the other way, ala california, vegas, and other tracks where the cars are too aero-dependent, then the racing goes something like this..." jimmy johnson comes past the stripe to complete lap 100, he's led every lap so far in this caution-free event, pause...1,2,3,4,5sec... here comes 2nd place kyle busch who can't seem to make any ground, repeat intervals for rest of top 10." I dunno, there's definitely no cure-all in sight, i would suggest a variable track style season that would include one race at traditional tracks, and race @ different venues different seasons, like more road courses or tracks that cup hasn't run on yet or some like the Rock and N. Wilkesboro, that were discarded. whatever the solution is, I don't want to see another Vegas, Kansas, or Chicagoland cookie-cutter track, those are the races where I clean the house or watch something more exciting like a croquet match or chess tournament. anyway, keep 'em comin', Bump!!