TBK-Light.com

You can Nerf up the racing all you want, the danger is still there.

The article summed up in 14 words.

Good Idea actually.

What needs to come of this wreck is advancement, not panic and overreaction.
The roofflaps, catchfence, and cars themselves need to be looked at by INTELLIGENT PEOPLE. Reviewed, to see if anything can be done to improve them. The yellow line rule needs to be abolished(beating a dead horse, i know, but i think this is a major problem), and CHAD KNAUS NEEDS TO SHUT UP. Stick to crew chiefing Chad.

I'll agree that the catch fencing is fine the way it is, even in 1987 and 1993 it was built well enough to keep the car in the track, and it's stronger than ever now. I still don't see why they couldn't cut back the first couple rows and put a second fence between the first fence and the spectators to catch any debris that slips through, you're sitting too low to see much anyway, so why not cut those seats out. All that said, I don't want to see much else change, the speeds are fine, bunching them up more would just create more scenarios where something bad could happen.

You can also never keep the fans completely safe. When I went to Charlotte a few years ago for a Busch Series race, a spring cleared the fence and landed quite a few rows up out of turn 4, fortunately nobody was sitting where it landed. It was close to where I was sitting, but it didn't prevent me from going back, it's always been an accepted risk of being a spectator. I've been going to short tracks for 20 years and can't count the number of times I've been hit by rocks and clumps of dirt even sitting at the top row. Last year a spring cleared the fence and nearly hit two little kids, and I would have never thought an IMCA modified could clear the catch fence a third of the way down the front stretch, but it happened. It could happen again, because they haven't changed anything, but I'll still go and take my chances that I or someone else could be killed.

I love racing, I will always accept this risk as a spectator.

This article is the best one yet, someone who is on the fan side, not the "OMG WE NEED TO PUT A CHICANE ON THE BACKSTRETCH OMG" type of person

Safety withstands Scrutiny

good article.

i dont see how this is a restrictor plate issue. the plates cause bunching and could be blamed for the other two wrecks, but this was a two-car incident; it could just as easily have happened without the plates.

i dont see how this is a yellow line issue either. i'm fairly certain that the yellow line rule is (officially) more flexible on the last lap. the reason kesolowski didn't go any lower on the track was the difference in banking at the tri-oval.

- what happened was just pure racing. stuff happens; and when stuff happens at 202mph it's usually big. if nascar put everyone in go karts and bunny suits no one would watch (not me anyway).

wat

what about Regan Smith last year then?

i cant remember regan's incident (sorry) but i remember jr doing it a couple of times coming to the checkers (maybe its just jr.).

Just do what they did at Charlotte/Atlanta after those two big IRL crashes there, both involved debris going into the stands. They jacked up the hight of the fence and put an extra few feet on the lip out over the track.. Problem solved. And cars going airborne is just GOING to happen, hell, Jeff Green almost blew over in the Nationwide race at Charlotte last fall going what... 165mph? This argument could never end...

I would pay to watch that

Reading that article feels really weird right now.

Why the hell would they look at the roof flaps on Kenseth's car?

He weight-shifted, and didn't do a blowover.

Because they're retarded.

Nascar needs to read this thread. So many good ideas, nobody to hear them...

Im really worried about what theyll end up doing due to all the heat theyre taking. More worried than Ive been after any other major incident. Sometimes it seems like they dont understand how their own sport works.

sometimes its easier to see something from the outside looking in.

http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlin ... index.html
Not trying to be a dick or anything, but this is very ironic.


300 posts btw WOO

My argument was more that no plate would allow for a cleaner pass and *less* of a chance of this happening, as you give more control of the driver and open up some horsepower techniques (sling-shots etc.) that drivers cannot use now. To some degree I think the same of the yellow line rule -- it wrestles control and judgment away from the driver. These perhaps contributed to how "dirty" the last lap pass was.

Obviously, even without the plates or the yellow line rules, cars will get airborne (they did before the plates several times, after all). Prior to the plates, "big ones" *also* happened at Talledega (although it was usually a pack of cars instead of the entire field). And without changing the engine formula or making some other change, non-plate speeds speeds will be about 20-25mph higher, so crashes will be that much heavier. You won't get rid of the chance of this type of crash by getting rid of plates. Since NASCAR won't ever get rid of the plates for many reasons, and NASCAR will continue to tweak around with rules like all sanctioning bodies do, it's just a minor quibble.

Even before racing became a very mainstream sport in America, stick-and-ball sports writers loved to write tons of hand-wringing articles everytime some near-fatalz happened. We're seeing the same here. Personally, I honestly don't see a need to change too much, unless someone can suggest a better way to catch-fence or a better way to prevent side rollovers. They need to keep in mind that what we've got now is pretty damn good. There's a lot of unnecessary OMG PANIC! out there.

Read what I posted on the last page. Its not perfect but its an idea. With the proper air routing engineering over the car and to the flaps, my idea could work.