Good golly.
You can’t visit a website or read a paper where they are not talking about Carl Edwards’ last lap crash at Talladega.
Now, I am not a NASCAR driver nor do I pretend to be.
But I am a race fan and I love the racing at Talladega.
I give the drivers a lot of credit for getting into those cars at this track knowing what the outcome may be. You may not get up into the fence as Edwards did, but you just might get caught up in a wreck that is not your fault.
But hey, can’t that happen at just about every track?
Yes, it can. The problem with Talladega is the cars run in a pack that very seldom gets spread apart. So instead of 4 or 8 cars wrecking, it might be 10 or 15 or 20. And at 200 mph, a wreck can cause quiet a bit of damage.
For example, this past Sunday the race was not even 10 laps old when Kenseth and Gordon – supposedly championship drivers, got into each other and WHAM, you had a big wreck.
Was that the fault of the track?
Nope.
It was human error in the early part of a race. If that had happened at Lowes or Texas, you might have had fewer cars involved but it would have been a big wreck nonetheless that early in the race since all the cars might have still been close together.
Carl Edwards chose to make a move on Keselowski and has admitted that he misjudged how fast Keselowski was. Is that the fault of the track?
Nope.
That falls on Edwards for aggressive blocking and human error. Carl knows the deal at Talladega and was hoping that Keselowski would go below the yellow line even though it is illegal to race there. Keselowski had a different idea.
A confluence of several things created this accident and if you remove Newman’s car from the equation, Edwards probably does an Elliott Sadler across the start finish line.
No harm, no foul, no one gets hurt.
The fact of the matter is, Daytona and Talladega produce some of the best racing we see all year long. From a fans perspective, we pay to see a good show. Watching Edwards and Keselowski team up to blow past the leaders was incredible. Seeing Dale Earnhardt come from 17th place to win over the final four laps was indescribable. NASCAR and the networks promote this high-flying sport and use images from those races to ring our Pavlovian bell.
The drivers are as responsible for the wrecks as anything. Running out of time, track or talent is a common occurrence. As drivers, you need to know the characteristics of every track and drive within the in the limits of the track, the car and yourself.
I have seen hockey pucks hit fans and people have actually been killed by a puck leaving the ice. But no one wants to change the rink. Freak things happen.
NASCAR and the track owners should do whatever they can to make the track safer for driver and fans. But these cars are not designed to run 215+ mph on an oval. Why do you think the IRL ahs added more street courses and fewer ovals? The track technology has not changed with the car technology. But you can’t afford to tear all the tracks down every time the car evolves.
Drivers need to change their style of driving to meet the demands of the track.
I know that is not a popular position, but listen to Jimmie Johnson.
“All of them can talk until they are blue in their face … but when we get in those cars, we are going to race and try to get the positions,” he said. “That’s what we do.”
I rest my case.
Let me know your thoughts.
Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.
Car Insurance Chevy Impala for sale
Say what you will but I totally believe that it was Edwards intention to force the other car below the double yellow line and force him out of the win. The young man simply held his ground because he knew the rules and the results caused Edwards to spin himself out. Not every young driver can be bullied. Race fair, race clean.
As for the car hitting the fence, you clearly see the car coming back down to the track when it was struck by the 39. You also see that Edwards had his front brakes locked and the gas floored as the rear wheels were spinning like crazy. If the forces within the spinning engine and spinning rear tire were completely stopped, the car may not have fliped as it did. You can what if all day long about it.
One comment Edwards made about the cars were that someone would have to die in the box NASCAR has them in before it was changed and I think that was totally uncalled for. Those cars are safer than ever, look at Newmans car where he struck Edwards. The sheet metal was pulled away but the drivers safety cage didn’t look like it moved at all.
Through the day there were at least 3 Dale Sr. type crashes there, the 33, the 71, and Robbie Gordon. All walked away. Safe cars at a safe track where some great racing took place. I’m not proof reading or spell checking so take it as it is and for what it’s worth.
Mike Sr.
I hear ya Mike. And while the late, great David Poole believes that Talladega is a bad track, it is what it is and the drivers need to respond by driving more carefully. Allison went into the fence when his engine blew up on him. Edwards did it to himself. As far as pack racing, that is something we’d all like changed but restrictor plates make it so.
I watched the tape over and over, trying to see just what debris it was that could have hurt the fans in the stands, and I saw the two loud speakers on top of the fence poles come flying back into the crowd as the largest pieces. It’s the replay from the stand side I kept watching in slow, frame by frame motion, that gave me this conclusion. Maybe the speedway should take a look at how those things are mounted and make changes there first.
As far as the cars, they’re just about as safe as they can be. I hope they don’t change a thing at Talladega unless it’s the yellow line rule on the last lap. Let ‘em race!