NASCAR's Snoozer in Bama

Toyota and their teams really turned things around drastically this week-- or was this a one time qualifying aberration?

There were lots of surprises at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend.  Toyota and Michael Waltrip taking the pole, all the Go or Go Homers that qualified in front of the field and rookie Jacques Villinueve starting sixth.  With all of those oddities you would think the race couldn't get any goofier.  Wrong--wrong--wrong.

This race actually started out rather racy and showed some potential until two strategies took over.  First the Hendrick Chasers decided to hang back and watch what transpired and the rest of the field decided to form a conga line and dance their way around the top of the racetrack for a good portion of the event.

The middle portion of the race started to resemble the early laps of an Olympic Short track cycling race.  Seeing how slow you can go without loosing the lead draft is not most fans idea of a good race and the strategy employed by Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson will not endear them to any fans other than their most ardent followers.  While successful, we can only hope that NASCAR makes sure its not something we will see in any kind of regularity.

It's time to head back home to Charlotte while pondering these:

The Buzz ON PIT ROW is:

Can we expect to see more "lay back and wait" racing in the future with the CoT??

The Fast Lap this week asks:

1)  Was the finish good enough to offset the rest of the race at Talladega?

2) Did Villinueve do the right thing by giving up his sixth starting spot and moving to the back of the field?

3) They were racing 3-4 wide at the start--and at the end--what happened in the middle?

4) What is the fix for the poor visibility with the CoT?

Let us know how you feel about these questions, or anything else that happened while waiting for the big one this week at Talladega.  If we like your comments, whether we agree or not, we may use them on the air during Tuesday's ON PIT ROW.  Leave us a comment on the blog or call the show--toll free at 1-877-502-8255 between 5-7pm edt on Tuesdays.

Photo: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images/NASCAR

Comments

[TZ]

I have to agree ... I'm not even a huge fan of big-track racing (no pun intended), but I was more pumped up for this race at Talladega than I have been for any other restrictor plate race in recent memory.

But, boy was this race just awful.

[CatchCanMan]

Nobody liked the "lay back and wait" stuff, neither drivers nor fans. But we should probably have expected it. The simple reality is, Plates = huge crashes, especially at 'Dega; and from the looks of the wild four-wide practice sessions with the identical COT's it promised to be worse than ever. Knowing that, Chasers in particular simply weren't going to risk a championship disaster by hanging out three-wide for 450 miles, knowing one random touch by any two cars in the pack can take them out along with 15 others. So, I don't blame them for cautiously running single file or hanging back.

But obviously it makes for a terrible show, and it was. (For me, almost ALL plate races are a terrible show until 10 to go.)

With the COY, (and also the trucks), the noses and spring/shock setups were more differentiated among the various brands and teams, resulting in more natural seperation of the cars. With the COT, all cars are nearly identical in aero and hp, like IROC cars were, so they want to stay sucked up tight in a bunch, or nose to tail. (And IROC was about as boring as racing can get.) Giving teams more options with the wing height/angle and front splitters might be a start, but I think it's going to take a lot more.

One possible solution I wonder about: Part of the problem is that with plates at Dega you never lift unless you are very tight. So, why not give them all a much harder tire compound with less grip, requiring partial lifting in the turn center? Give them a bigger plate for more speed and throttle response on the straights, to make up for the lower avg lap speed from lifting in the turns. Those two things would seperate the pack a lot more, and make the racing more like it is at 1.5 and 2 mile tracks, where they are often going much faster than Dega: over 205 mph into turn 1, down to 180 or so in the center, back on the gas on exit. In other words, put something other than merely "drafting" back in the drivers hands. That would make a race out of it again.

[RevJim]

Why didn't anyone want to partner with Smoke to possibly improve their finishing position? He had the fastest car, according to the speeds he posted Friday and Saturday--he was the fastest car to qualify in race set up. Did all the ennui of the race affect the drivers that much?
Was Gordon really going for the win, or was he just trying to block for Jimmie?
And what about David Stremme?

[TZ]

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed that the only hope Stewart could get was from Kasey Kahne there at the end ... which is why I'm always a Junior fan when the show heads to 'Dega and Daytona. At least with Jr still in the race I know Tony has a drafting partner as long as they're able to get together.

[robert bourne]

1-kinda

2-yes definitely I have to give him credit for that

3-to many unknowns with the new car some were trying to figure out how to work it..others waitng to see what everyone else was going to do...

4-surely there is a clear material they can use at least for the wicker which might help....