| Subject: backstretch |
Author:
Rick
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Monday, December 24, 08:18:27am
Data has been collected on all of the crashes that took place during the 2007 Nextel Cup Season. While some of the information will surprise you, if you sit back and really think about it, some of the data is pretty obvious.
First of all, some records were set this year. According to reports in USA Today, Martinsville’s 21 wrecks were responsible for a record number of cautions, with Atlanta’s 14 wrecks not all that far behind. In all, there were 240 crashes on the season.
Not surprisingly, rookie David Ragan recorded the highest number of crashes with 22 wrecks. I say not surprisingly because he is a rookie with little experience at the Cup level. That said I have to admit that I was a little surprised that Robby Gordon finished the season with 16 wrecks in 35 starts. While Gordon is one of the more aggressive drivers, experience should have played a part in keeping him out of trouble, but he still managed to wreck in almost half of the races he entered. Granted, like Ragan, some of the wrecks were not his fault but enough were. And you can’t really use his aggressive driving style against him because another very aggressive driver, Kevin Harvick only wrecked three times.
Why are we seeing so many crashes? There can be any number of reasons but there are certainly two that could be blamed. First, teams were running two very different cars in 2007. Everyone says the Car of Tomorrow is a completely different animal and that it takes a lot of getting used to. That could certainly account for some of the wrecks, especially with teams that can’t afford to test as much as others. Once NASCAR goes to the COT full time in ’08, I think the number of wrecks will diminish a little bit.
The second reason that could very well lead to accidents is the car itself. Who was the last guy to get killed in one of NASCAR’s top three divisions? Dale Earnhardt. When that happened NASCAR went ballistic with safety, and rightly so. But in doing so, they made it almost impossible to get hurt really bad. Ricky Rudd’s shoulder injury is the worst we’ve seen in quite a while. That’s a problem because many of today’s drivers do not know what it’s like to see someone get hurt bad, or worse. They are almost indestructible while inside those machines and that makes them even more aggressive and more likely to do something that ten years ago might have made them think twice.
NASCAR has done absolutely the right thing as far as safety goes. We saw far too many guys get killed in a very short stretch of time and something had to be done. That said, wrecks have always been a fact of life in NASCAR and I suspect they always will be. But these cars are so safe now that we take an awful lot for granted and perhaps that’s not a good thing. When racing was a little more dangerous, drivers displayed a little more caution.
I will admit that I find the races at Daytona and Talladega more exciting than any other races. It’s not that I like to see massive fifteen-car wrecks. I don’t. But the anticipation of that wreck is pretty exciting and I hope that never goes away. I am not one of those people who tune in to a race just to watch accidents and I detest people who do. But the very fact that it can happen is what fuels the sport. The element of danger is a huge part of what drives these men to climb into a race car in the first place. Take that completely out of the picture and I suspect some of these guys will find another line of work.
NASCAR did the right thing by making these machines safe. But did they make them too safe?
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 