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How to fix Talledega?

Discussion in 'Sports Forum' started by swaimj, Apr 27, 2009.

  1. swaimj

    swaimj <img src=/swaimj.gif>

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    Yesterday's race at Talledega is the end of an era. I hope you enjoyed it. You'll never see a race like it again. In the aftermath of 1987's Bobby Allison crash at Talledega, NASCAR changed the cars dramatically so that no car could ever get up and rip down the grandstand fence again. But, yesterday, a car repeated Allison's performance, coming scarilly close to going over. NASCAR has to alter something drastically before the next restrictor plate track race.

    What should they do?
     
  2. puros_bran

    puros_bran Member

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    Return to the roots of the sport... Stock cars. Strip out the non essentials, put in safety gear, and 'run what ya brung'...

    COT templates,restrictor plates, non spec drivetrains?
    Come on, really? My Peterbilt 379 has more parts in common with a true stock car than what they are trying to pass off as such.
     
  3. JohnDeereFan

    JohnDeereFan Well-Known Member
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    NASCAR jumped the shark about fifteen years ago.

    Let's face it: any sport that has to be explained to fans by a cartoon gopher is not long for this world.

    "Oohhh look! He turned left!"
     
  4. EdSutton

    EdSutton New Member

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    Bet that sucker could crush a few of them too, in a crash, as well! :laugh: :laugh:

    Ed
     
  5. ccrobinson

    ccrobinson Active Member

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    I'm not so sure about that.

    Here's an article on Nascar.com about the wreck.

    Of course they are. That's their job. If Carl Edwards, or Jimmie Johnson, or Jeff Gordon, or anybody else, doesn't push it to the limit, he's not going to win and, in fact, he'll lose his job. Pushing the car to the limit is what's required to keep their jobs.

    There you go. This was all the drivers' fault. Maybe Nascar will change their tune over the next few days, but I wouldn't hold my breath expecting it. Carl said it. It's going to take somebody getting killed before changes are made.
     
  6. padredurand

    padredurand Well-Known Member
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    Dale Earnhardt Sr. once suggested they remove all the grandstands on the outside of the track and put them in the infield. That way no fans would ever get hurt when one of the low flying racecars headed for the fence like Mr. Edwards.

    Wind Tunnel on SpeedTV
     
  7. BigBossman

    BigBossman Active Member

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    While I don't follow Nascar, I saw that footage. That would have been some scary stuff if I were sitting nearby. One idea would to put thick, durable plexiglass behind or in front of the chain link fences in front of the stands. that way, debris wouldn't fly into the crowds.

    I would love to see a destruction debry race in the Nascar leagues though. The first car to cross the finishline or the last one that is still drivable is the winner. Make the cars more durable. Allow the drivers to crash into the other cars. You'd have more people watching the races then.
     
  8. padredurand

    padredurand Well-Known Member
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  9. JohnDeereFan

    JohnDeereFan Well-Known Member
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    Ever been to Indy? You can only see small portions of the track because they have stands in the infield.

    You wouldn't be able to see anything. It would be almost as boring as watching it on TV.
     
  10. JohnDeereFan

    JohnDeereFan Well-Known Member
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    You think that one's bad, go on Youtube.com sometime and check out Bobby Allison's wreck back in '85 or '86.

    The crashes are the only interesting thing about it.
     
  11. BigBossman

    BigBossman Active Member

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    No. I wouldn't go that far.

    When I play the Nascar video games though, its fun to ram the other drivers, or even better yet, race in the opposite direction. I'll only do that during practice, but not during the actual race.
     
  12. ccrobinson

    ccrobinson Active Member

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    Earnhardt's other suggestion was to build the walls 100 feet high and take the restrictor plates off. I like that one better.

    If you are looking on Youtube, it was May 1987.

    The only thing that's really going to fix Talladega is to change the track, but that's not going to happen. See the article here.

     
  13. swaimj

    swaimj <img src=/swaimj.gif>

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    I expect to see more restrictive plates on the cars to slow them down. This will cause worse crashes (as in tight packs with multiple cars involved), but at slower speeds, so there is less chance of someone going over the fence. It's kindof a shame because Talledega actually had two car breakaways at the end of the race; something I have not seen in a long, long time.

    The real solution is in the hands of the driver. There should be a simple rule of courtesy and respect among the drivers that used to be the case: You do not take the leader out and you do not knock the leader out of the way. You pass him. If drivers would honor that, it would make the racing cleaner and safer whether they are at Talledega or Bristol.

    The drivers I grew up with raced each other cleanly and they respected the leader. The dominant competitors of that time did not knock the leader out of the way. Well, Petty and Allison did it to each other, but that was an aberration.
     
  14. puros_bran

    puros_bran Member

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    lol


    You are trying to make NASCAR sound like it has its roots in some gentleman's past time.... It always has and always will be a violent sport, both in and outside the cars. How many times have you seen a driver whack another driver in the nose? You think maybe that started back in the day when it was a bunch of bootleggers racing for bragging rights? If you want to see some serious car demolishing go back to the early footage...these young punks today surely didn't invent the bump draft,the Earnhardt Shuffle, or any of the other colorful metaphors for cleaning a dudes clock. No sir, it isn't about clean racing and a firm handshake to the victor.... and it never has been.

    The problem isn't the racers its the organization wanting them and the sport they love be something its not. Don't want 250mph cars? Don't race on a nearly 3 mile track... its not rocket science.
     
  15. ccrobinson

    ccrobinson Active Member

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    Please tell me you're not suggesting that Keselowski knocked Edwards out of the way.

    So, the dominant competitors of that time did knock each other out of the way.

    You can't compare the eras and say that the drivers were beholden to a sort of honor system that doesn't exist anymore. Usually, the leader was so far ahead of 2nd place that the 2nd place guy wasn't in position to knock the leader out of the way.
     
  16. JustPassingThru

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    I love Talledega just like it is. I also loved the 15-round heavyweight championship boxing matches back in the day. But that was too much punching to be safe. (Is any punching safe?)

    Talledega really needs to be changed. Maybe the whole sport needs it. Smaller engines. Tires that aren't quite so good. Tracks that aren't so extreme in banking and/or size. Maybe even a few road-course type chicanes (although I cannot imagine that).

    I'm a Carl fan through and through, but he screwed up at Talledega ... again!
     
  17. swaimj

    swaimj <img src=/swaimj.gif>

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    I did not say that nor suggest it. However, the bump and run whether at Bristol, a road course, or anywhere else is an accepted move in the sport now. This was not the case in the past.

    Why not? I see no evidence to the contrary. Here are the major drivers I am talking about: Pearson, Petty, Yarborough, Baker, Parsons, Waltrip, B. Allison. Name one incident of a bump and run that one performed on another during their careers. Outside of the Allison-Petty stuff, I do not know of one. And you cannot say they never had close finishes. They had them many times. Those guys had a respect for one another that I do not see among drivers today. They had a different code of ethics as to what was an acceptable move on the track.

    Well, this is probably off the topic of Talledega at this point. The problem NASCAR has a Talledega is that the reason restrictor plates were put in place at the track in 1988 because of the Allison crash in '87. Now, 22 years later, that crash has been duplicated. NASCAR CANNOT let that happen again. If a car goes into the stands and kills multiple fans, given today's political climate, it will be the end of NASCAR racing.
     
  18. ccrobinson

    ccrobinson Active Member

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    In the context of when you said it, I'm not sure what other conclusion I should have been drawing, but no issue.

    I continue to go back to the idea that the cars weren't nearly as equal in those days as they are, so the bump and run wasn't even an issue.

    I did not say that they never had close finishes. Here's what I did say.

    I chose a year at random, 1972 in this case, and I went to racing-reference.info and looked up every race for the margin of victory. In over half of the races, the leader was far enough ahead that bump and run wasn't even possible. What I said was accurate.
     
  19. swaimj

    swaimj <img src=/swaimj.gif>

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    But there were close races and there were close finishes. What you have to do is look at those and see if there were any bump-and-run moves. How many times did Petty-Pearson finish one-two with a last-lap pass? Never a bump and run. Waltrip-Petty had the famous finish at Darlington in 1979 with 3-4 passes on the last lap! No bump and run. Yarborough-Petty had a similar duel at Darlington back in those years. No bump and run. I remember one year in which Petty clearly had a faster car than Yarborough throughout the race, but Yarborough had the lead and Petty followed until Cale made a mistake. Then Petty made a clean pass. No bump and run. This is what elevated the sport and brought it out of the bush leagues where it started in the 40s and 50s. Those guys had class.
     
  20. ccrobinson

    ccrobinson Active Member

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    Yes. This is why I didn't use the word never and why I used the word usually.

    I'm simply not buying what you're selling, that the sole reason there was no bump and run in Nascar in the 70s was due to the drivers having more class.
     
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