TALLADEGA, Ala.– “The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I need to make it clear that restrictor plate racing isn’t going away.
As usual, yesterday’s GEICO 500 was quite the show of excitement and carnage. We saw cars upside down and a whole gaggle of cars caught up in one wreck, 37 lead changes among 17 different drivers and mayhem coming to the finish line. It was hands down the most competitive race of the season and arguably one of the best races at Talladega. That, however, hasn’t stopped the critics of restrictor plate racing from pointing to the carnage as the argument against it.
Now plate racing has always come with its detractors. The late David Poole was probably the most hardened critic of restrictor plate racing. Every Monday after a race at Daytona International Speedway or Talladega Superspeedway, he would pen a column in The Charlotte Observer and say on The Morning Drive on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that we should knock down the banking at Daytona and Talladega. The wreck with Carl Edwards at Talladega in 2009 sent him over the edge and led to him suffering a fatal heart attack.
As of late, I’ve started to notice some more people I work with in the media center, I won’t name any of them, who are starting to turn against plate racing.
Here’s my take on restrictor plate racing: I love it and I’m not ashamed to say it! Whether you like it or not, Daytona and Talladega are the most competitive races of the season and the numbers back that up. The number of passes is higher than at any other track and the lead changes are higher than at any other track. More than anything, it’s unpredictable and anyone who so much as qualifies can realistically win.
The carnage is always there, but that’s part of the game. If you go into a race weekend at Daytona or Talladega thinking to yourself that you won’t see big crashes, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Racing is a dangerous sport. It’s been a dangerous sport since auto racing was born in France in the early 1900s and remains the most dangerous sport in the world. To quote Brad Keselowski, “racing has always been that balance of daredevils and chess players.”
We’ve seen other forms of racing continue to race at tracks that don’t fit any current safety standards. One of Formula 1’s crown jewel races is held every Memorial Day Sunday on the streets of Monte Carlo and it doesn’t come close to meeting the safety standards of modern F1. Speaking of Memorial Day, IndyCar continues to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway despite the fact that these cars are racing at speeds that couldn’t have been imagined in the early days of the Brickyard. Just last year, we saw heart-stopping wrecks in the days leading up to the Indianapolis 500 because of the emphasis on higher speeds.
Despite all the dangers of Monaco and Indianapolis, these racing series still race at these historic venues for one reason; they’re the cathedrals that embody the greatness of their respective sports.
This was the reason that Daytona and Talladega were built in the first place. They were built to be the cathedrals that embody what is so damn great about NASCAR.
The bottom line is that unless fans can settle for Daytona and Talladega becoming drawn out and uncompetitive like Indianapolis, which is exactly what would happen without the plates, plate racing isn’t going away.
My plane is about to take off, so I must get going. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this fact. It takes about 142.18 licks to reach the center of a Tootsie pop.
