Changes and Changes
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Over
the past 30 years NASCAR has undergone changes, both good and bad; some with
safety in mind, some with evening the field in mind, but each change has
brought about some squawking among the fans. Let’s look at some of these and
how they have affected racing.
Lots
of changes over the years have been in the name of safety, and like them or
hate them they have been for the good. One of the first ones that comes to mind
is safety belts. I think of this rule change where drivers were forced to
install, and wear seat belts and I remember a conversation with 1960 NASCAR
Champion Rex White. I asked Rex once what rule changes that he has seen in his
years of racing that he liked, and right away he mentioned when they mandated
belts. “You see when I first started, we were still racing with factory seats,
you know the bench seat.” Rex started, “At some of the tracks we had such a
side load that it was hard to stay behind the wheel; Now some of the drivers
were big strong guys who had arms like hams, but me, I wasn't that lucky. I was
a bit smaller than some and it took all I had to stay on the left side of the
car” Rex smiles “ When we put the belts in I could now stay on the left side of
the car and focus on driving without sliding across the seat.” I guess you
could say Rex really liked that rule.
But
you look at some rules like the Pit Road Speed rule; this was brought about
after Bill Elliott crewman Mike Rich was killed on pit road. It had gotten just
way too dangerous on pit road for the crews and I don't know anyone who was
against this one.
Another
rule that Bill Elliott played a part in was the restrictor plates. Over the
winter of 86-87 the Elliotts had done lots of work
looking for speed. And when they unloaded in Daytona, they set NASCAR on its
ear with a qualifying lap of 210.364 MPH NASCAR came unglued! Oh no, that was way
too fast! Still, if you look back there were only 4 cautions with no big
crashes, and great racing at the end. BUT NASCAR didn't like the Fords running
so fast, so they made a mid-season rule change where the sleek Thunderbirds
were raised 1/2” and the Monte Carlo's were lowered 1/2”; then things roll
around to Talladega and Bill Elliott goes 212.809 setting the all-time record
that still stands today… and brought out the restrictor plates, which allowed
drafting like never before, and brought about the huge wrecks we have come to
expect today.
In
2007 NASCAR came out with the COT, or Car of Tomorrow. The car was supposed to
be designed to keep drivers safer and make it cheaper for teams to compete.
Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Teams spent millions on this
car trying to make it run faster, but it was slower. The silly wing that was mandated
on the back was hated by fans and drivers alike. It wound up not being cheaper
to build, it produced poor racing and in general was hated by everyone. It also
caused some of the smaller teams to shut down due to the high cost of making
this farce of a car raceable. BUT it did bring about some safety changes and
after major changes to it, it became competitive to some point.
In
2009 we had the new double file restarts come about. Before that year, lap cars
lined up on the inside while the lead lap cars lined up on the outside coming
to green, giving the cars a lap down a chance to race the leaders to get back
on the lead lap. Along with this rule change you also saw the “wave around”, giving
cars that didn't pit but were a lap down a chance to stay on the lead lap, by
going around the leader and join the field at the rear. While this rule change
riled lots of fans when it came out, it actually helped and made things safer
for the lead lap cars as well as the cars one lap down by not making them race
so hard on the restart which often resulted in some pile ups.
2016
saw the new “Charter System” where 36 teams who had raced full time for the
previous 4 years were locked in. This rule was a death blow to the smaller
teams because without a “Charter” they could not race. And teams were selling,
or leasing charters they were not using to lower teams thus driving up the cost
to teams just trying to get in the sport. That in turn fed the super teams more
and more leeway in controlling the sport.
These
are just a few of many rules changes that have affected NASCAR over the years.
I would like to hear from you, the reader, which ones bother you the most.
Thanks
for reading and, Cya@theraces