CUP: New Rules Will Be A Total Wreck

Sprint Cup

CUP: New Rules Will Be A Total Wreck

Mark Martin and Carl Edwards weigh in on wrecks and the new rules...

Rick Minter | http://www.RacinToday.com | Posted January 15, 2010 Hampton, GA

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Mark Martin says proposed changes at plate tracks will not change a whole lot when it comes to wrecks like the one he had at Talladega last fall. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Sitting in the media center at Atlanta Motor Speedway this week, listening to drivers answer questions about proposed rules changes for races at Daytona and Talladega, the foregone conclusion was that no matter how the rules are written, the Sprint Cup races at Talladega will once again be known for spectacular wrecks.

Two of the drivers doing the talking, Mark Martin and Carl Edwards , know all about that. Last year, they both finished races at Talladega with their cars flying through the air.

The discussion at AMS, like hundreds of others in the months and years past, focused on changing the cars and the rules; not the race track which has been a problem since the first laps were turned there back in 1969.

There’s widespread speculation that NASCAR will relax its ban on bump drafting and possibly modify the rules prohibiting racing below the yellow line.

Away from the microphones, most any driver will say that the only true fix for the two mammoth tracks on the circuits, tracks engineered and constructed with the goal of facilitating maximum speeds, is to make radical changes to the tracks.

But few will say it publicly, so the discussion continues to focus on tinkering with the rules.

As in the past, the talk of rules changes followed races that were labeled boring by fans and some in the media. More and more it seems that the definition of a boring race is one without several bone-jarring crashes. The race promoters and many in the media have hyped the crashes, making it more difficult to come up with a fix because then the sport then would have to sell races at Talladega by focusing on aspects of the race other than wrecks.

But it seems that those who prefer crashes over other racing drama need not worry.

Mark Martin’s comments indicate that he sees nothing in the proposed changes that will change the wreck-filled nature of Talladega races.

“Based on the way we wrecked there last time, I don’t see how much worse it could be allowing bump drafting,” he said. “Certainly it will lend itself to creating more accidents, but it will be hard to have more there than last time.”

Martin also said changes to the yellow-line rule could produce something worse than complaints of boredom from fans.

“Jeff Burton had a great statement to me on that and it was that when you go in the corner five-wide and someone is on the flat, the driver on the way to the hospital is going to say they shouldn’t have changed that line,” he said.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rick Minter

RacinToday.com

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