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What Should Be Done About NASCAR’s Superspeedways?

An Opinion



May 5, 2009

By Allen Madding

Allen Madding

All week there have been articles, new programs, and simple dialogues on what to do about cars flying through the air at Talladega and Daytona, how to keep them on the ground, and how to keep them out of the grandstands.

First of all, shame on International Speedway Corporation for now updating their catchfences like Lowe's Motor Speedway did after the IRL crash there. The taller fences with the curved section extending out over the track provide better retention of flying debris than the old fences, that are still in use at Talladega and Daytona. So, recommendation number one would be to replace those fences. No rocket science there.

During both the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup events at Talladega, there were cars off the ground.

Matt Kenseth had a violent flipping crash in the Nationwide Series that could very easily had him hanging upside down in a burning car which is a very bad situation. And of course there was the last lap crash that sent Carl Edwards’ car flying into the catch fence and showering fans with debris.

As many have noted, Carl Edwards' car would not have gotten so high into the fence if it were not for the car of Ryan Newman driving under the No. 99 while it was airborne. No fault on Newman’s part, but the contact simply launched the No. 99.

ISC and NASCAR quickly announced there were no serious injuries. If I was the teenager preparing to graduate in a few weeks and now has her jaw wired shut for the next 30 days, I think I would probably take strong issue with that announcement.

There has been considerable talk of removing the banking at the Superspeedways to slow the cars down. Why on earth would you destroy a race track to slow down a car? In the 1970s, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series had to slow down the cars. They temporarily implemented restrictor plates on the big 450-460 cubic inch motors as an immediate solution. They later restricted the engine displacement to 355 cubic inches.

In the 1980s, the cars started getting airborne and restrictor plates were implemented again to slow them down. The downside of utilizing restrictor plates has been the astronomical development cost associated with building restrictor plate engines and the lack of acceleration that the cars have which causes the cars to be in one huge pack at 190+ mph. Now mind you the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars are reaching those same speeds at Atlanta Motor Speedway but without the huge pack of cars and without restrictor plates. With the entire field in one huge pack at 190+ mph, one small miscue by one driver ignites a multicar crash. At Talladega, we saw this occur within the first 10 laps, and we see it every time NASCAR visits Talladega and Daytona.

The answer to slowing the cars is not tearing down the banking at Talladega and Daytona. The answer is not restrictor plates. The answer is smaller cubic inch displacement engines and smaller carburetors.

Reducing the maximum displacement of the engines to 300 cubic inches or 283 cubic inches coupled with the utilization of a 390cfm carburetor would significantly reduce the speed of the cars without bunching them into a full field pack. This suggestion has been made year after year since the restrictor plates were implemented, but we have not seen any testing of such a configuration at the two Superspeedways.

Many assumed when the NASCAR Research and Development team headed by Gary Nelson was birthed, that one of the high priority items on their plate would be a permanent solution to the speed problems at Talladega and Daytona to replace the Band-Aid solution (restrictor plates).

Reduce the speeds of the cars with a non-restrictor plate engine package with smaller displacement and a smaller carburetor and update the catchfences at both tracks.

That is a reasonable solution to a 25 year old problem.

You can contact Allen Madding at .. Insider Racing News
You Can Read Other Articles By Allen Madding

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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