Was Daytona the last restrictor plate race?
Quote selected text Published July 8th, 2007 in NASCAR News
Drivers are divided on the issue of whether or how the Car of Tomorrow will change restrictor-plate racing.
Tonight’s Pepsi 400 marks the final appearance in a plate race of the chassis design that is being supplanted by the COT. The COT will be used for the first time at a “restrictor-plate track” in the fall at Talladega.
Denny Hamlin, coming off his first victory of the season, thinks the COT will make a considerable difference.
“It’s just going to make them like the truck races, really, where the guys are just all packed tight together, where now our cars are so slick that they’re not handling the race track that well and we’re starting to spread out,” said Hamlin. “Now we’re kind of going to take a step back and be back where we were. With the Car of Tomorrow, I think they’re going to suck up to each other so much that you’re just going to have a huge wad.”
Jeff Burton wasn’t so sure.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Ask me after Talladega. It’s too early to tell. I haven’t driven the Car of Tomorrow on a Superspeedway (i.e., a plate track). I certainly haven’t been on a race track with 42 other guys. I don’t know what to expect. I don’t have an opinion on that. I don’t have enough information to have an opinion.”
- Newman says COT too fast without restrictor plate
- Sprint Cup teams to use smaller restrictor plate at Talladega
- Gordon set to tie another Earnhardt record
- The end of restrictor plates?
- NASCAR claims better restrictor plate competition at Talladega
my question: As more boxiness is in the car, how big will the plate be? I’m sure the holes will be considerably larger, maybe it wont take them near as long to spool up. I wonder if nascar has considered using 2 barrel cabs for plate races and see if the plate can be gotten rid of completely?
If anything I think they should run the tapered spacer like they do in the trucks…that way the drivers have more throttle response and can put on as good of a show as the trucks usually do on the plate tracks. Not that last nights race was any indication of why they should saty with the current car but that’s just me…
Just about anything that gets rid of the plates is fine with me.
I really wish NASCAR would just suck it up and redesign the stands at Dega and Daytona so we can have some wide open racing without risking any non-competitors and without any artificial configurations on the cars.
Getting rid of the plates wouldn’t matter. The Trucks don’t use plates, and they’re always way, way more bunched up and close than Cup of Busch ever is. If the COT is aerodynamically dirty enough to see the end of restrictor plates, it’ll just make things much closer, like it was back when they used the wicker bills. It’ll still be the kind of racing we refer to as restrictor plate racing, just without the plates.
Dang i hate the cot