Ha ha that’s exactly what I call it, stupid crab walking. I disagree with the dirt lm stuff though. It’s hard to dislike something like that when they’re still racing side by side. Street stocks falling over to the right like that look stupid to me but not LM’s.
You certainly cannot argue with the racing on dirt, they put on a show, I just don’t like how the cars look now.
Give it a shot, Joe. You might get a “rise” out of it.
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=609&ei=Q2llXPq8NdDYsQXz2ZuwCg&q=dirt+late+model&oq=dirt+late+model&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1976.4670..5811...0.0..0.117.1330.13j2…0…1…gws-wiz-img…0.z0IwbC13Ryk#imgrc=0eUDuyswRhu-dM:
Truck race was the same. A bunch of so called professionals weaving around like they’re drunk, trying to go straight. smdh
Lurkin, could you believe that mess?? I think there were 8 trucks running at the finish, and almost all of them had some damage. I guess I am wrong about lower speeds making better racing. I am beginning to believe it is the video game culture of these kids that are now making up the bulk of the drivers.
It’s de track, boss, de track
When we used to go go-cart “racing” on a short, greased oval our “rule” was–whoever got in front went a tick artificially slow and blocked. Result? bang bang bang two wide.
Man was it fun.
Same-same at restrictor plate races. They cannot get away from each other.
And Cup has about got them 3 feet apart with 30+ years of attacking the unsolvable problem and voila’, it’s either crashing or boring.
Those guys would look good on a short track–in fact, Mike Skinner (former truck driver) currently does look good at New Smyrna. But running with essentially go-cart governors at 180+ just produces predictable results.
They have got their series talent level pretty clearly laid out:
ARCA–maximum driver errors
Truck–slightly fewer errors
Xfinity–better still
Cup–sucks the least!
Yay.
“Daytona 500–NASCAR’s biggest event of the year”.
By NASCAR’s measure, anyway…
So, simply put, why didn’t it happen in the good old days?
You know me…it’s seldom simply put :).
Two major factors:
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They slowly gained in technology and speed. While they were getting there, the cars looked and raced about like they did at Charlotte. There were only about six “fast” cars, but you knew they were on the edge of crashing and they were doing, say, 170 instead of last years 165, so it was thrilling in and of itself. Even the “independents”, probably 10-15 mph off the pace, were hauling the mail in their own right, on the verge of crashing, and also thrilling to watch.
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They were on belted tires. Drifters are lightweights. Those dudes were sideways–constantly– in cars with door handles and vent windows, with minimal cages and seats.
The danger was something almost tangible, and itself kept you on the edge of your seat.
Back in those days, it often came down to a two car battle, and a last lap backstretch slingshot move–or not. It often worked, and when it didn’t you had the Petty/Pearson and Allsion/Yarborough deals.
And then, when they got to about 200, they were running Monte Carlos with no flaps, no roof fins, and a big A low pressure area behind the near vertical back window, and this happened:
https://youtu.be/2MQGyfPkIt8?t=5
Note the car rolls over the “wrong” way. Cale’s car was not the last to do this, and clearly, a car could gain altitude, clear the fence, and take out dozens, if not hundreds, of fans.
Rather than face the lawsuits and probably a government racing ban, along came a simple chunk of aluminum that the inspectors could understand, and with holes that could and did become smaller and smaller.
And everything else is a by product of that.
Fairly simply put after all, but not brief…
I went to Citrus Co. last night. Great racing. No plates. No pack racing. No chance of a car flying into the stands. Somewhere between that 1/3 mile or so venue and 2.5 mile the point of diminishing returns is reached. I would suggest it is a long ways before 2.5 miles…
The fix is always a shorter and/or flatter track that itself prevents today’s technology from reaching the critical airplane wing effect by holding the speed down.
And they just don’t want to do that. It has been grumbled about for years, I think at one point by Jack Roush. But you know, it doesn’t go well in the tech booth or announcer booth when one grumbles publicly about NASCAR.
So, they constantly get surprised by Mother Physics and we discuss it all.
I do not see an end in sight.
Racetime, 2:30!
I agree about flattening the banking. You are right though, I don’t see it happening. I don’t agree that the speeds are at fault. They were going 200mph in the early 70’s. The pole for the '70 500 was 194mph. They slowed them down for a few years but by 1979 they were back up to 196mph. We still did not see the ridiculous crashfests we see today.
Correct. 1984 was about the tipping point regarding speed/techology/flying cars.
What was different in 1970?
As mentioned along the way…
>>In 1970 they had just gotten there with technology, and there were no plates. And there was throttle response. Therefore occasionally they could drive out of trouble. And belted tires had far more predictable and linear break away, so again, there was a chance of saving it.
>>There were only a handful of fast cars, and fewer still running at the finish, and fewer yet with the leader. In 1984 Cale could have (and, as I said as I watched it unfold on site, should have) tried to pass Petty before the white. But that was the practice at the time.
NOW, everybody, including backmarkers, are capable of “winning” at Daytona and Talladega.
Did you notice that Jimmie let Menard pull out a few lengths just prior to um, crashing him?
The reason was twofold: To run through his low-resistance wake and gain speed over and above the leader (like the old slingshot), but more importantly, NOW it also “sucks” the leader back to the pack (of 20 or 30 cars).
That big bubble in-the-air-with-cars-in-it-at-200mph rules and you can’t get ahead of it, and if you lose the draft you cannot catch it.
So, to sum up, now they are forced to run in a pack at 200, earlier they were not. And there is turbulence (changing and invisible higher and lower pressure areas) in that big bubble, and there is human error.
Crashes are therefore now inevitable, in 1970 they were accidental.
Looked it up. Restrictor plates came along in 1988.
Additionally, there may be hope ahead after all. Moving forward they are going with “tapered spacers”. In and of themselves that sounds like a thick restrictor place to me, but they are also combining it with aero that will make the cars appear to be very wide.
Who knows, it may help.
Yep, exciting finish. Looked and was about like “regular” racing, but faster. The draft played into it, but not nearly to today’s extent.
No plates, they knocked a big ol’ hole in the air, and they were about 30 cars short of today’s pileup-waiting-for-a-place-to-happen.