This one pins it on the drivers. You can understand their frustration and even why they take the chances they do. It sure makes the press happy to showcase the damage. We seem to like it too. But, bottom line, I don't think the drivers want to wreck their cars - if only because there are unavoidable moments of sheer terror when you're out of control at 199 mph and waiting endless seconds for an unknowable series of wild impacts to occur from out of the smoke.
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It's time for NASCAR to clean up act
May 3, 2005
BY MIKE BRUDENELL
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
The litterbugs departed Alabama's Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday en route to Darlington Raceway in South Carolina for Saturday night's Nextel Cup event.
from Detroit Free Press
http://www.freep.com/sports/autoraci...e_20050503.htm
No, we're not talking about the fans at the Aaron's 499. NASCAR's trash brigade consists of the increasing number of drivers who seem willing to turn expensive machinery into smoking piles of rubble, then smugly walk away.
Their senseless approach to racing has resulted in multiple wrecks this season in Nextel Cup and Busch events. Meanwhile, the Craftsman Trucks were at Gateway in Madison, Ill., on Saturday, and the drivers appeared unusually well behaved.
Blame restrictor-plate racing for the Talladega bash-fest if you like, or fault this season's shorter rear spoilers and softer tires for the crashes. But the "ding-a-ling factor" should not be overlooked. At Talladega, at least 50 Cup and Busch cars were involved in accidents. I'll wager that damage to cars at Talladega will run into the millions of dollars.
If some of the moves pulled at Talladega were made during a Saturday night demolition derby, the black flag would have waved.
Which brings me to bump drafting, or "move over, I'm coming through, stupid." If Fox commentator Darrell Waltrip, who could drive just a tad, said it once over the weekend, he said it a dozen times during the TV telecasts -- don't bump-draft in the turns, guys.
But drivers bump-drafted on the straights and in the turns, in both Busch and Cup races, spinning cars into the wall and endangering fellow competitors, track workers and spectators.
Unless junking cars has become acceptable, it's time for stock cars' best to be held accountable for their actions. If NASCAR doesn't have any luck in policing bump-drafting, perhaps sponsors who pay the bills might. A lot of the racing at Talladega last weekend was intense. In some cases, it was moronic.
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photo caption:
Cars spin through Turn 1 of the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala., Sunday in a 22-car incident. Pictured are drivers Rusty Wallace (2), Kyle Busch (5), Kasey Kahne (9), Bobby Labonte (18), Boris Said (36) and Scott Wimmer (22). Associated Press Photo.