Comments on: Perspective Needed At Talladega

By: James Dedmon

James Dedmon — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:12:55 +0000

I agree with the smaller engine. Also take away the out of bounds. There is going to be big wrecks there no matter what you do. As long as we keep the cars and parts away from the fans, that is what matters.

By: Joe W.

Joe W. — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:39:35 +0000

I agree with the idea of a smaller engine with less horsepower for Daytona and Talladega. The purpose of the plate is to lower horsepower thus lowering speed. It seems that the horsepower could be limited by a smaller engine without losing the throttle response like the plate. Hopefully this would also spread out the cars a little bit. I do have one other thought. Why are most people blaming this on Carl Edwards? The same “experts” were blaming Dale Jr. at Daytona. He did the same thing Brad K. did and he was a “bad guy”. Now Carl is the bad guy for “blocking” but he did not run halfway down the track like Vicars did. It seems that we have some hypocrits out there on this subject. Not you Jim. Just what I have observed.

By: michie

michie — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:53:35 +0000

Excellent post. I have my gripes with Dega but there is nothing that could be done or will be done in the near future to change what happened, it was really a fluke.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:19:02 +0000

You asked for somebody’s 2 cents? You got it. Adjusted for inflation. Got change for a $20?

Facts first:
“The Incident”: Kes held his line, above the yellow, & had a fender under Carl. Carl’s spotter couldn’t tell him “Inside” fast enough, Carl tried to block (uninformed & too late). “It” happens. Just racing at Talladega. Kes was right.

“Safety of the cars”: These cars are safe, except for the tires. Goodyear has a lot of work to do. The splitter does it’s job, & does it well. The wing does it’s job also. As far as it becoming a lifting device when it’s turned backwards? False. There is still more pressure above the wing than below, therefore, depending on the angle, it still produces downforce. Turn it UPSIDE DOWN, however….. I could get into Bernoulli’s principal here, but I’m only an amateur aerodynamic engineer.
The cars are actually lifted by the air under the rear bumper. Not because of the wing. What the cars need is larger roof & cowl flaps because it’s a larger car. They could also benefit from a rear air dam below the bumper (what the street racers call a ‘diffuser’). This would help keep the air from getting under the rear of the car in case of a spin. Next: side skirts, or ‘ground effects’ to keep the air from getting under the sides of the car. Let the fans gripe about the appearance, & how they’re not “stock” cars anymore. Hell, they haven’t been close to stock since the 80’s.

My opinion? Lose the plates & reduce the compression in the engines. Maybe drop the cubes to about 300 or so. This will kill the horsepower & top speed without robbing the cars of throttle response the way the plates do. Aerodynamically, there is no real way to keep these cars (or any others) glued to the track at those speeds, so, on tracks like Daytona or Talladega, the only real solution is to slow them down. They tried adding drag, it didn’t work. Yes, it’ll cost the owners more to build 2 different engines, but the only other choice is what we have. Even trashing the aerodynamics won’t work. They’ve tried it. Fences on the spoilers, fences on the roofs, etc. Nada. Anything will take to the air with enough velocity behind it.
Yes, so far we’ve only had a few incidents of flying stockcars in the past 20 years, but from a safety standpoint, that’s a few too many. They cited Allison’s crash from ‘89 as the motivation behind the plates, but there have been other instances at Talladega. I don’t recall the years, but they were post-restrictor plate. Ask Rusty, or Bill Elliott. They’ve both went flying without pilots’ licenses.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:52:59 +0000

Take out what happened with Edwards on the final lap, and I am pretty sure we won’t be having this discussion. In a week or two, it will go away when something else happens. The media will bring it up again at Daytona, and it will die out again. Then, the media will bring it up once more at Talladega, and then the championship at Homestead Miami will drown it out when the media talks about how Homestead doesn’t embrace the series enough during the championship weekend and that we should move it somewhere else. Then NASCAR will release and statement saying that Homestead is great. Then, (prediction time), they will announce a couple of weeks later that the season finale will be moved somewhere else. Then, NASCAR will raise the track fence at Talladega and Daytona up 4 feet, and the issue will officially be dead.

I just hate it that this is drowning out Keselowski’s first win.