What was with the Daytona 500?

[goosenapper]

To those who watched the 500 on Sunday- did anyone actually see anything exciting during it? It seemed to me to be quite the snooze-fest. It was like watching "follow the leader" for three hours. The new aero-packaged prevented the tandem racing that had become part of recent years' restrictor plate events, but it made everyone weary of leaving the draft and attempting a pass. It seemed like just about anyone who did was left out on their own and quickly found themselves passed by the train.

I'm glad that the rule change eliminated the tandems, but what replaced it was a dull race filled with two minutes of commercials every 5-10 minutes. Perhaps NASCAR instructed the drivers to take it easy on the heels of that horrible wreck the day before, but good luck winning new fans (or entertaining old ones) with a race like that one.

I still believe that they need to eliminate the restrictor plates all together and just let the teams have at it. I'd much rather see the cars carrying so much power that they have to <gasp> brake at the turns- yes, even at Daytona!- instead of just setting a brick on the throttle.

Which reminds me- What was with Danica saying that she had the car at half throttle all day? Here's a thought- Take a chance and put that thing to the floor and see what you can do! A top-ten finish is great, but no one is going to win a championship playing it safe. (unless NASCAR has become as rigged as WWE, but I like to believe that it hasn’t)

[TsgtRet]

I didn't get to watch, had to work and I'm not a big NASCAR fan anyway. I guess the new rule change will make me even less of a fan. I'm all for improvements in safety, particularly where the fans are concerned but auto racing, by definition, is hazardous and the attraction is/was that there are those that will take a risk to see who is best. I'm with Goose, remove the plates let the best (insert PC term here) win. I'll go one further, get rid of the "clone car" bodies; if it's supposed to be a Fusion/Impala/(shudder) Camry then at least make it the same shape. If it's not slippery enough then sell some production cars with the appropriate aero aids like they did in the "old days".
:angry-soapbox: I'm done now.

[proxieken]

I watched some of the race and it seemed they talked a lot about Danica Patrick. She got passed at the end by 5 people. Nascar of today just does not interest me as much as looking at pics of the old cars. I agree about removing the restrictions and also think racing real cars would be more interesting.

[Modlerbob]

They (NASCAR) are trying to satisfy too many conflicting demands. Racing is dangerous and no matter how hard they try they cannot take all the danger and risk out of it and still have an event that people will want to go to, let alone watch on TV. They came close on Sunday but at the cost of putting on a mostly boring race. I figured long before the race started that the first car out of the pits on the last critical pit stop would win this race. Jimmy Johnson drove a smart race. He stayed out of trouble and saved his car until near the end of the race.

In the end it is what it is and either you like it or you don't. Had there been a slot car race scheduled at the same time I probably would have participated in it and watched one of the many race replays later if the urge struck me. The media billed this as the most eagerly anticipated Daytona 500 in history but I think they exaggerated. Oh why be nice, they lied!

[RazorJon]

I did see bits of it, but I was working on a Kurtis midget :banana-rock:

[Fubar Motorsports]

Snooozefest Deluxe...! Watched first 25, and last 25 laps...Single file freight train isn't race'n..!!

[RichD]

One problem with the race was that the cars had restrictor plates, without those the cars would probably go 30 MPH faster, but many crashes would be fatal and the chances of an airborn car landing in the crowd would also be greatly increased. I had to drag out my college physics book to be sure that the kinetic energy of a moving object is proportional to the square of the velocity. Going from 200 to 230 MPH increases the kinetic energy by 32%. With new bodies on the cars nobody was sure how the cars would work in heavy traffic. With restrictor plate racing a single car can't go as fast as several cars in a row. If a following car gets too close for too long it can overheat. If a car pulls out to pass and nobody follows it will get hung out to dry and go back to the end of the line. It looks like most of the drivers were biding their time and waiting for the end of the race to make a move. I listened to some of the radio chatter and some of the drivers were asking their spotters and crew chiefs what to do. It did not seem to me that anyone had a clue. Any move that a driver might make would involve a risk. When you are going 200 MPH the risks are bound to be bigger. I am sure that NASCAR is considering what to do to make for a better race on the restrictor plate tracks. Maybe if they just ease off on the restrictor plates a little a car has a chance to try a pass even without a push from a following car.