The White Knuckle Highway

When the good ole boys hit the Superspeedway restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega, the races usually invovle a major accident, which is commonly referred to as the big one. Often, the big one has been followed by a late race accident involving cars getting airborne.

The reason NASCAR implemented the restrictor plate, a small plate placed over the carburetor which restricts the flow of fuel to the engine thus reducing horsepower, was due to the following crash in 1987 as Bobby Allison in his Miller High Life Buick almost entered the grandstands. Check it out:



The placement of the restrictor plate slowed the cars down about from about 210 to 195 and seemed to bunch the cars together for tight racing, but it did not stop the major crashes. Take a look at Neil Bonnett, who was returning to competition after a few years in the television booth in the Mom and Pops Chevrolet Lumina, a car owned by his buddy, Dale Earnhardt.



Bonnett would later lose his life in a practice lap in his Country Time Lemonade Chevrolet at Daytona in 1994.

Another nasty crash at Talladega found Rusty Wallace finishing the race in sixth place in his Miller Genuine Draft Pontiac Grand Prix barrel rolling through he air. Take a look at this one:



Other drivers who have had last lap flips at Talladega, otherwise known as the White Knuckle Highway, are Elliott Sadler in the M&M's Ford and Bobby Labonte in the Interstate Batteries Pontiac.

The running of the Aarons's 449 yesterday at Talladega Superspeedway had it all. We had the big one on lap eight and then a very scary incident involving Carl Edwards as his Ford Fusion, in an eerily similar crash to the aforementioned Bobby Allison crash, almost entered the stands. Eight spectators were injured, either from debris from Edwards car or from broken parts of the catch fence. Check out this heartstopper:



I have been attending races at Daytona since 1992 and the catch fence is quite imposing and obviously capable of prohibiting the cars from breaking through to enter the stands. You can see the fencing in this photo of Jeff Gordon in his Dupont Chevy at Daytona last year:

NASCAR has made great safety strides with the safer walls, the catch fencing, the restrictor plates, roof flaps, fuel cells, roll cages and the HANS device. I remember Ernie Irvan and Dale Earnhardt wrecking in front of me on the Daytona Superstretch in 1997 when Irvans hood flew up toward where we were sitting. NASCAR is an awesome thrill and I love the sport, but I am in those stands twice a year and find it amazing there have been very few spectator injuries. Maybe ISC (ISCA:NASDAQ) might want to consider raising the fence height about two feet or so after the events of this past weekend. NASCAR is reviewing policies.