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Drivers say: 'Take that, NASCAR,' at Talladega
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Mark Martin (5) flips at Talladega Sunday.
NASCAR doesn’t want to see their racecars wrecking. Yes there are some fans that do, but for most, watching crashes isn’t the reason they watch a NASCAR race.
But Talladega Superspeedway is normally the site of the so-called ‘big one’, those multi-car crashes that have become synonymous with NASCAR’s biggest track.
With memories of a spectacular last lap crash in the spring at Talladega Superspeedway that saw Carl Edwards tumble along the fence and injuring several fans, NASCAR began to warn competitors on Friday that they would not tolerate over-aggressive driving or the practice of ‘bump-drafting’.
In the second Friday practice session they even went as far as to force driver Michael Waltrip into the pits when they felt he was pushing Jimmie Johnson in the same sort of fashion that many believe was the cause of the spring melee and other ‘big-ones’.
Sunday in the prerace drivers meeting, NASCAR laid down the law telling drivers that anyone seen bump drafting in the turns would be penalized. For a time Sunday it appeared that drivers had not only heeded the warnings but may have gone too far as the race settled down to a single line affair.
As the race came do its final stages it seemed as though NASCAR’s stern warnings throughout the weekend would ensure that at least for this race, the ‘big one’ wouldn’t happen.
Then with less then five laps to go, all hell broke loose.
Ryan Newman made contact with his boss and teammate Tony Stewart and was sent flipping along turn three. The accident, which Newman eventually walked away from uninjured, forced a nearly 13 minute red flag.
As the field was restarted under yellow and was being set up for a green white checkered flag finish, cars began to run out of fuel all around the track forcing NASCAR to wave off the restart for several laps.
Once the field was restarted and came around for the white flag another crash began mid-field and soon Mark Martin’s Chevy was flipping while other cars bounced off the walls and slid through the infield.
The raced ended under caution with Jamie McMurray being scored the winner.
In the aftermath drivers were complaining about the harsh no bump-drafting rule, calling the racing boring and some in the media asked if maybe the long strung out field was a protest of sorts against NASCAR’s rule.
Roush-Fenway Racing driver Greg Biffle, who finished fourth ahead of the carnage, said that while NASCAR’s prerace warning may have had an effect on the racing, drivers were still able to bump draft in the corners.
“I think so. I think the guys were a little more cautious,” Biffle said. “I think that’s why you didn’t see some of those big wrecks. The guys kept it a little more cool and up in three and four they ran into each other pretty hard up there. They tried to wreck three or four times and it just didn’t happen.”
But Biffle added though that despite the rule, the single file runs were certainly no protest and the racing wasn’t too different then normal.
“If you look back at the races in the past, we’ve done the same thing,” Biffle said, “Three years ago, I was running fourth and we were all lined up on the top. I think Reutimann was right in front of me and blew up or something, so we’ve done that here a lot.”
In the end it would seem that even with NASCAR’s intervention, spectacular multi-car crashes will still happen. Maybe when the series returns to Talladega in the spring, NASCAR will simply let the field race and realize that no matter what anyone does, the ‘big one’ at Talladega will always be lurking.
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