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My Window Net Came Loose in Turn Three

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by Charlie Turner

I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot.

May 2, 2008 6:40 am CDT 3 Comments

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My Window Net Came Loose in Turn ThreeDid you see the ARCA RE/MAX Series race from Kansas Speedway Saturday? Former Formula One driver Scott Speed won the thing but he had to come back from a black flag for a window net infraction. According to Speed’s crew chief, Patrick Donahue, there was no attempt to find a competitive advantage in tweaking the nets - even though Speed’s teammate nearly had the same fate. Nope, it was simple, human error, which I am intimately familiar with. I work with Steve.

Both Donahue and Speed were guests ON PIT ROW last night. Scott’s interview was short but memorable - “kick ass” according to Speed himself. Listen to it Thursday at 7pm edt at RaceTalkRadio.com.

So things got a little loose ON PIT ROW and now they will get Loose in Turn Three. TZ from Do You NASCAR?, Bruce of NASCAR Bits and Pieces and I will hash out some NASCAR opinion and you are REQUIRED to comment. Please.

Would NASCAR be better off if it had never instituted restrictor plates?

Charlie: In the era BCoT - Before the Car of Tomorrow - races at Daytona and Talladega were contested by plated cars and were pretty much universally complained about by owners, writers, bloggers and the drivers who drove the cars. Fans usually gasped in wonder at the close, three and four wide racing and the big wrecks that the plates promoted. I would say that more casual fans got their vision of what NASCAR is by seeing highlights of plate races than anything else.

Restrictor plates brought NASCAR more excitement and more fans per race than any other innovation the Frances tried. Plates also, almost certainly, saved lives at Talladega and Daytona, where unrestricted cars would have ended up in the stands at some point without action to slow the cars down. Plates are a good thing.

Bruce: I agree with Charlie. Without plates, it would have been a matter of time before a car ended up in the stands. I go back to pre-plate days, remembering a car pulling around another car on the backstretch of Talladega and doing it’s own backflip at 200+ mph. Thank God it wasn’t in the bootleg in front of the stands.

And for the record, I’ve always liked plate races. Even if the drivers don’t think it’s racing, it has to be some form of racing requiring the same degree of experience or the same names wouldn’t be up front in most of them.

TZ: Interesting question for me, because here’s the deal…restrictor plate races TYPICALLY bore me to tears - at least with the old car, anyway. And, really, I think my grudge against the plate races started back in 2003 when I made the trip out to Daytona to watch Greg Biffle win the race on fuel mileage, though I know that’s not really the norm. It’s just in the past there’s not a ton of passing, and the guys for the most part always seemed to play it overly safe through the first 7/8’s of the race but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year.

But really, even before this year, the plate races have been a great commodity for NASCAR to carry. Much like the road courses they bring a certain level of diversity to the schedule that really helps keep things interesting. I enjoy being able to watch a different type of race each week.

Once more, that’s what we think. What do you think? Let us know what your thoughts are on these two topics too.

TZ’s post at DoYouNascar.com : NASCAR recently took a win away from a driver in the Camping World Series on technical inspection grounds. Should this be the new practice?

Bruce’s Bits and Pieces post : Does Dale Earnhardt Day merit all the attention it gets on April 29th?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Car of Tomorrow, Daytona 500, Eddie Sharp Racing, Inside ARCA, NASCAR Tech, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Red Bull Racing, Scott Speed, Sprint Cup Series, Turn 3 posts 

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Comments

3 Responses to “My Window Net Came Loose in Turn Three”

  1. Loose in Turn 3 (5/02/08) on May 2nd, 2008 6:35 pm

    [...] - Would NASCAR be better off if it had never instituted restrictor plates? [...]

  2. User Avatar 4ever3 on May 2nd, 2008 10:40 pm

    Restrictor plates are needed to keep the cars under 200 mph. If they had the same wings, tires, and weight as F1 cars and Indy cars then I’d say get rid of the plates. Plate races were a bit boring I admit, especially when NASCAR didn’t really have ’special’ strips of metal on the spoilers to capture air, as well as the stips going across the roof. With the introduction of those things the cars were better able to pass and the races weren’t as boring for the fans to watch, but it made it interesting for the drivers though. The way the CoT is built now the body style lends itself to having the same effect as the preCot’s when they had those ’special’ air disturbing devices placed on their cars.

  3. Sports Guru on May 7th, 2008 1:30 pm

    [...] The Rest of the Discussion: - Does Dale Earnhardt Day Warrant the Attention it Gets on April 29? - Would NASCAR be better off if it had never instituted restrictor plates? [...]

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