Sunday, May 1, 2016

Demolition Derby at the 2016 Talladega 500 (video)

The Talladega 500 is probably the fastest track in NASCAR and it's got a reputation for high-speed incidents.  Today the track took a solid bow toward that and the first incident took out fifteen cars which made for total mayhem:

Note:  if you have never seen a car spinning in the air, take a gander.





The big drama came on the last turn before the finish and it gave Keselowski the win.  That guy had fallen out of favor with a whole lot of people but maybe they have lightened up and no longer wish for him to be crushed by a gigantic rolling can of Pennzoil.  Taking a win at Talladega definitely qualifies as being one of the Big Dawgs and here's the video:





The announcer cracked me up when he said, "I've never seen anything like this."

You mean not since yesterday on the same turn?


There are two sets of two words which immediately come to mind.  The first likely came to you as well in 'Demolition Derby' and the NASCAR crew out there likely follows that with 'Restrictor Plates.'

From this chair, we want to rip the restrictor plates off all of them and push racing back into its real form.  The go-fasters will overtake the field and work their way through it bringing its own dangers but the cars will inevitably spread out more.

The thinking seems generally NASCAR wants this because bunching up the cars by using restrictor plates on the air intake causes more crashes but the crowd loves the excitement.  Again from this chair, we think this sucks because racing will have accidents but deliberately creating a situation in which you know accidents will happen is malicious.

We don't know of any other of the Big Dawg automotive events in which anything is done to reduce the speed of the racers ... so why does anyone put up with it for NASCAR.  No choice but grin and bear it?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

This ceased to be racing years ago. Restrictor plates just causes these wrecks. It makes for a great news clip and cheap advertising.

Unknown said...

Hopefully someday they will be able to remove them. Kannafoot was thinking the end was exciting and my response was it's only exciting when they don't bork it as they did mostly the same way two days in a row. When these guys are the best in the world at doing this and even they can't handle it then something is definitely wrong.

Anonymous said...

You cant call it racing when all the leader does is block the lines of two. Eventually he will block and catch a fender and the whole field is trashed
If Nascar had it thier way every week would be like this which is why I went from attending 8-10 races a year to none.
I am glad Kannafoot found the last laps exciting Nascar needs all the viewers it can get


Unknown said...

I was annoyed by the ending and started looking for the bad guy but hereally isn't the driver but NASCAR.

Anonymous said...

From earlier comments
With Danica it isnt if she will wreck it is when. Her first yesterday was foolish mistake getting into her pit box on tbe first round of pitstops

Anonymous said...

Don't really watch nascar, but every racing series constantly changes rules to slow the cars down. F1 accidents would not be survivable had they not done so. Indycars on ovals would be pushing 300mph had they not restricted downforce and horsepower and added those ridiculous wheel shrouds to lessen the impact of tire contact. All series have greatly increased safety of spectators by adding restraints for most easily detached parts. I well remember a common occurrence at indy drag nationals was a fuel car launching a 50lb blower with injector hat 100' in the air. Andy

Unknown said...

Fair enough on speed reductions so my conclusion was lack of knowledge. There's a troubling consequence in NASCAR which doesn't seem to exist so much elsewhere. Fans don't like it so much when the leader runs away with it but bunching them up has caused multiple accidents so the safety argument doesn't work so well with them but I see it in others.

Anonymous said...

It is not the slowing of the cars. But the parity of the cars that causecthis ridiculous pack racing. F1 slows the cars but the parity is inside the teams not thr entire sport.
With Nascar controlling Cart and Petite LeMans it only a matter of time before the same thing happens in those sports also with contrived racing. Just look at the Rolex 24 Hours ans how the yellow is now used to manipulate close finishes

Unknown said...

It sounds like this will wind up a cartoon show if it continues. The idea of manipulating a finish with flags is so non-racing ... whew.