October 5, 2008
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
|
Ahhh, Talladega. It is a race…a weekend…unlike pretty much any other on the schedule.
People began arriving for today’s race a week ago even though the campgrounds didn’t open until Tuesday morning. Many will remain until Tuesday of this week…probably because it will take them that long to sober up.
I was at this race two years ago (the year of Brian Vickers' infamous bump and run on Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the last lap in turn three), and I have to say, I really wish I was there today. It is hard to describe what makes Talladega so unique. Oh sure, it is the rowdiest race track for fans…the track has its own jail located just off the back stretch which is occupied from the first night the campgrounds are open until the night it is closed. Most of the people who spend the night in the large concrete cells (they are mass holding cells…if you do something more than act drunk and stupid, you will be hauled off to the actual county jail) are there to sober up, and then released to go back to their campsite.
Every once in a while, you get someone who ends up in handcuffs that goes down in Talladega history…like the guy who thought it would be fun to steal the pace car and take it for a few laps around the track.
And then there are the beads. If you don’t know about the beads, think Mardi Gras.
The most important part of the weekend, of course, is the racing. Or, in some folks minds, the crashing caused by the racing.
This is the place where the term “the BIG one” was coined. Where restrictor plates were born after Bobby Allison went flying into the front stretch fence, being saved from going into the stands only by a chain link fence.
And every year, twice a year, we tune in and wait for the next big one.
While we watch, the drivers sweat. They start sweating about Talladega the moment they climb out of the car in Kansas. They know that no matter how well they drive, the end result is only partially in their hands…the rest is in the hands of lady luck.
Carl Edwards said earlier this week that he would give a million dollars to just be given 10th place and skip the race all together. Jimmie Johnson said he tried to keep as busy as possible all week so that he wouldn’t have a chance to think about the race this weekend until he landed at the airport just off the backstretch Thursday night.
Dale Jr. explains Talladega this way: “It's more of a mental race than a physical race. It's not really who has the best car; it's the guy who makes the best moves and makes the right decisions there at the end of the race.”
Unfortunately for Earnhardt, lady luck has been pretty cruel to him already. In the first practice on Friday, his engine grenaded within 10 laps. The 88 team replaced the engine and got the car back on the track in time for the second practice…only to have the right rear tire blow and send the car, and its new engine, into the wall. In the process, Junior took out David Gilliland, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer and David Reutimann. All five men will start today in back-up cars. And that was only practice. Tony Stewart was also involved in the wreck but the team was able to repair his car and avoided the back-up car.
This weekend is not shaping up to be much of a birthday present for Dale Jr., who turns 34 on Thursday and needs a good race today to have a hope of moving up from his current 8th place in the race for the Championship.
If anyone knows his way around this track, it is the driver of the 88. This is almost like a family shrine for the Earnhardt’s. His father won here eight times, including his very last win in 2000, and explained his success by saying he could “see the air” in the draft. Earnhardt has won here five times, and admits it is as much the mental challenge in getting to where you need to be at the right time in the race as it is the drivers’ ability to actually get there.
“The most important thing is coming out of that last pit stop; you need to be in the lead. If not, you need to find yourself into the top two or three in that first lap after the restart. You're not going to pit for tires. You're not going to go to pit road any more the rest of the day. You normally see a little bit of a jumbling up in the first two or three laps after a restart, then guys kind of settle in and protect their position, especially the guys that are in the top five. They're not going to move around and take the chance of getting shuffled back. They're going to sit there in the top five, hoping that they can hold that position toward the end of the race, then make a move.”
Being in the top five before you make that last pit stop is key to Earnhardt's race. “It becomes nearly impossible to breach into that top five that late in the race. So you need to be there coming off of pit road for that final restart. That's one of the most important things.
You don't realize what you do leading up to that throughout the entire race, makes that happen, determines whether you're going to be there or not. Sometimes guys are racing really hard. Say I'm in the lead, running second, say we get three-wide or something, and I back out because it's too early in the race to take a risk like that. Well, that might have been that decision that cost me the opportunity to be toward the front of the pack when the race ends. It's hard not to get too protective of the situation. You've got to race really hard all day long 'cause when it comes down to that last stop, man, it's so hard to break into that top five once everybody gets going, knowing nobody's got to pit anymore, the top five are so protective of their position. You'd like to be one of those guys at that point.”
As I watch the cars racing three and four wide at nearly 200 miles an hour, I am amazed at the ability of the drivers to keep the cars just inches off of each other. The draft is a science that I really have a hard time comprehending, especially the way these guys use it. I mean, I know how my car feels when it is buffered by a semi passing me. I can’t imagine dealing with that at 200 mph. And to know who to draft with, and when, and where to hook up…it is a lot to think about when you are trying to stay off the car a foot on either side of you.
“What determines when you go and when to make a move and whatnot is who's behind you. Is the guy behind you a teammate of the guy in front of you? If you pull out, he's going to go with the teammate. Is he a friend of yours that's been helping you all day? Has he either given you reason on the racetrack or through his spotter to let you know he's going to help you when you go? How good is the run? How fast is the run? If you're coming up on a guy, making a real strong run, yeah, you can pull out and probably get beside this guy, but where is the guy behind you? Is he tucked in behind you? Have you pulled away from him? If you pull out and you're by yourself, he just might close the gap 'cause he knows if he pulls out to help you, the next guy's going to fill the slot on the inside of him.” Earnhardt explained earlier this week.
“It's pretty tough really to know this is the right moment, this is the time I need to go. It's really hard to know exactly if it's correct or not. You just constantly put runs together, lap after lap after lap, and eventually one's gonna feel right to you. If you've got some trusty guys behind you, and they're tucked up on you hard when you're making that run, man, it's a good opportunity to pull out.
“Also you watch for people on the outside. If you're on the inside lane, you're watching for the outside lane. If it begins to creep forward, it seems like it's gained a lot of steam, it's going to hold that steam, maintain it, it's got a strong group of guys up towards the front of that outside line, you can pull up in front of it and try to be the leader of that line automatically. Kind of frustrates the guys who are carrying that line up to that point. But a lot of times they'll end up pushing you into the lead eventually if they don't get too angry with you and try to make it three-wide.”
It seems like an awful lot to think about when you are racing at the biggest track NASCAR has. And it isn’t something you can think ahead to at speeds like that. “It's rare where you're planning a move a half a lap or a lap ahead. A lot of times it's split second, Here we go.”
Some fans complain that the plates take away from the racing because they slow the cars down so much. However, the alternative is cars going in excess of 240 mph, and when they have a hard time doing that at 200 or less, 240 is pretty hard to imagine.
Not to mention, at those speeds, when you do crash…you don’t walk away from it, even in these new cars.
Others have called for ripping out the banking and flattening the track down so the speeds will be kept to safe levels. But don’t we already have a 2.5 mile flat track called Indianapolis Motor Speedway? And don’t people complain about the quality of the racing there? (Mind you, that doesn’t include this year, when the tires were a disaster and much more to blame for the bad racing than the track ever could be.)
I have friends who have told me they have no interest in watching this weekend’s race, or any other plate race. They instead plan on watching football. To them, it is too boring watching the 43 cars race around in a pack with little or no passing except in the draft.
Need I remind you that in the spring here, Michael Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson hooked up and became a two man machine, pushing each other repeatedly to the front with no help from anyone else?
Earnhardt thinks the new cars draft even better than the old ones. “You can draft a little bit harder with each other through the corner, all the way around the racetrack. Hopefully as long as NASCAR doesn't mind and get too nervous, we'll be pushing each other all the way around the racetrack this weekend, just like we were last time. You'll see guys jump out, two guys get out 25 car lengths in front of the pack.” That ability should negate any complaints about the lack of passing at the very least. And if you are watching football instead of today’s race, who knows what kind of excitement you’ll miss.
Speaking of not missing a moment of the race, there is good news on the satellite radio front. As of Friday, folks who have XM satellite radio now have the ability to add NASCAR radio back to their programming, Sirius satellite radio took over the NASCAR contract from XM in 2007,and those who have had only XM have been unable to listen to races live. Now, thanks to the merger of Sirius and XM, you can have the best of both worlds. XM subscribers can add “The Best of SIRIUS” channels by calling 1-866-9SIRIXM (866-974-7496).
One final note; I want to wish my parents a Happy 40th anniversary. Here’s hoping the next 40 are as good as the first.
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.
You can contact Kim at..