Is restrictor plate racing a healthy part of NASCAR?

Yes

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by Louis Dicrescentis

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"Restrictor plate racing", a phrase that many fans love to hear. It is truly a spectacle to see 43 cars neck and neck with only 1.2 seconds between the leader and 43rd place. Is it dangerous? Of course it is, but so is racing by nature. Restrictor plate racing is the product of a decision made by NASCAR in 1987 after Bobby Allison's car left the ground at 200+ mph hit the retaining fence and sent various debris into the grandstands injuring spectators. The car never crossed the fence, but did proceed to narrowly miss the overhanging flag stand, and rip down the entire section of fence it made contact with. Restrictor plates starve the engine of horsepower, and as a result, speed. And of course when you mandate an engine modifier such as this, it limits the things teams can do to get an advantage. This essentially turns these NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racecars into more equal racing machines. The result of this is close racing and difficult passing. The only way to break the pack is to eliminate the parity and increase speeds. It is what it is and in order to protect the fans and ensure the safety of the attending majority, they must keep the speeds low to allow the car to stay trackbound. This would certainly protect the fans, but the drivers are put at an even greater risk. Though they are traveling at lower speeds, it bunches up the field and puts the drivers at a higher risk for a crash. The more crashes occur; the more likely a car will hit an object at a dangerous angle, which is the real reason for most injuries and deaths, not speed.

Restrictor plate racing is a very healthy part of NASCAR. In fact, restrictor plate racing contains, with the exception of danger, all the components that NASCAR themselves as an organization define as successful racing conditions. Some of the components that NASCAR considered positive were identified when they started creating the Car of Tomorrow. Many of these were already regularly practiced in restrictor plate racing due to the specific rules followed in order to allow "safe racing". The lower speeds caused higher parity, closer racing and improved competition. What resulted naturally from their cautious changes in 1987 was perfection according to NASCAR's COT specifications. It provides tight racing, neck and neck battles for the lead, photo finishes on a semi-regular basis, and nail biting action at every corner. They slam into each other as they bump draft, they side draft closely to each other in the corners, and they put themselves on the edge of disaster in order to ensure they do not lose the slipstream. No racetracks provide closer competition than Daytona and Talladega, and though it does pose a greater risk on the drivers' lives, it is impossible to eliminate that risk without either again raising the risk to spectators or removing the tracks from the racing schedule. And as any true NASCAR fan knows, Talladega, and especially Daytona have a massive role in NASCAR racing and cannot be allowed to fall by the wayside.

Having read Mr. Larry Shaw's "No" article, though it is obvious much thought was put in, NASCAR is in no way similar to IndyCar in the ways mentioned. Because of this, I respectfully disagree completely with the solution mentioned. The biggest reason NASCAR gave, other than safety, for the implementation of the COT (Car of Tomorrow) was that they were trying to save the Sprint Cup teams money in a troubling market. After the COT was debuted, it became noticeable that some drivers were using speedway cars as short track cars, short track cars for road courses, etcetera. This had never been done in the past, and it started to become clear that maybe this new vehicle would indeed save the teams some much needed cash. The "restricted" drivetrain Mr. Shaw notes will put into play a tirade of expenses and far too more research and development than needed. Chevrolet's Racing Development Team started design specs on the new R07 engine after debuting the highly acclaimed and reliable SB2 engine in 1998. The mid-2007 premiere of the R07 marked nine years of development. This is just a look into how much time and money would be spent on a motor that would be used for only two tracks (4 races out of 36) on the NASCAR circuit. It just seems preposterous. The reason that restrictor plate racing is known to be so dangerous is not because of the speed, but the close proximity of the cars to each other. They travel in tight packs which are allowed because of the high banked corners and wide track widths. This allows them to drive full throttle which is why "throttle response" is irrelevant. These track dimensions make it ludicrous for the driver of a well-handling racecar to release the gas pedal once racing under green flag conditions. They would have no need nor desire. What also contributes to drivers driving in close packs is the increased difficulty in finding an advantage in power through what NASCAR uses as their form of restricted motor. This form is not by modifying or changing the motor, but by simply adding a "restrictor plate". This aluminum plate is placed between the carburetor and intake manifold of the engine allowing less air and gasoline into the engine. With these necessary fuels being starved, the engine's horsepower and speed decrease. With all 43 racecars having restricted engines and a wide easily maneuverable track, it is easy to see why the packs stay so close together. Even more so when it becomes even more necessary with the new COT model to stay in close packs in order to keep from falling well below the pace. This is because of what NASCAR drivers call the "draft" or "slipstream". Drafting is done when a driver gets behind another and follows them forward. They will, along with the car in front of them, experience faster speeds as they will have less wind resistance due to them traveling in the hole in the air that the car in front of them has already made. The car in front will be pushed by the air pocket formed between the rear driver and their own back bumper. This is the biggest issue caused by such a formula. By restricting engines, you create tight packs that run identical speeds. In order for any driver to have an advantage and pass another car, they must become even closer. The only way to stop the danger is to eliminate the packs which would entail not a restricted engine, but the opposite. You want higher speeds, a possibility for a team to build a more powerful car than the rest of the field allowing him to leave the pack. If all the cars in the field could adjust their cars as they would on a typical speedway, more spread-out and safer racing would result. Sure speeds will be higher, but historically, it is less likely in NASCAR for speed to be the killer in an accident than angle. The more fatal crashes have been caused by drivers making impact at 180 degrees, or 90 degrees from the direction in which they first traveled. Dale Earnhardt's fatal 2001 crash was a 90 degree head-on crash. It was not the speed that killed him, but the inertia. Jerry Nadeau's life threatening 2003 crash was a 180 degree crash that resulted from a spin causing him to hit flat on the driver's side door. Again, inertia took its toll and like many drivers before him, Nadeau will never drive again because of it. NASCAR, Simpson and Hans Performance (racing safety product companies) can do what they want, they can soften the blow of an impact, they can restrain the head of a driver to prevent neck injury, etcetera; but they can never stop a brain from moving in a person's skull. The heart and brain are floating in nothing but liquid, and when a driver hits head on or at a compromising angle, speed is not a factor; it is the human anatomy.

What NASCAR has done in order to preserve safety is all that can be done without losing important aspects of NASCAR history or financially straining its racing teams. If one were to follow NASCAR's timeline of rule changes and implementations, one would know that the last thing they would want to do is cause further strain on their teams, especially in a troubling economy when so many teams are struggling for finances (Chip Ganassi Racing and BAM Racing for example). Restrictor plate racing is NASCAR racing at its finest hour. The sheer power, the fender to fender racing and the courage of each driver shows NASCAR as what it was meant to be. Its NASCAR at its purest. It's more than healthy; it's NASCAR.

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