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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
WALLACE: Going Retro
The biggest thing I’d like to see is NASCAR’s arrival at the point where there is no more change...
Kenny Wallace  |  Posted January 22, 2010   Charlotte, NC
RAB Racing hopes to make their NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut in the 54th-annual Daytona 500 with driver Kenny Wallace. (Photo: Getty Images)
The rule changes NASCAR announced Thursday are the talk of the NASCAR world right now because some of them are fairly significant. However, a closer look reveals the rules do nothing more than take us back to where we were a few years ago before we got so “rule-happy.”

As we embark on a new decade of racing, the biggest thing I’d like to see is NASCAR’s arrival at the point where there is no more change. “Change” has been the buzzword the past 10 years, and while I love the sport dearly and want it to continually improve, it has endured too many modifications that have driven people away.

I’d like to see us return to the day when the story wasn’t centered around “change” or the race car that has been so altered, but focused on the drivers, personalities and what they do on the race track.

Remember when Dale Earnhardt bumped Rusty Wallace at Bristol, Rusty got mad and pegged him with a water bottle? Remember Earnhardt running Kyle Petty down to the grass in the Sprint All-Star Race and then Petty and Davey Allison wrecking coming across the start/finish line? No one was talking about change and rule alterations those days – they were talking about those men and what had just happened.

The players were the story … Robert Yates and his incredible horsepower arsenal … “Suitcase Jake” Elder’s brilliant chassis work … the Allison brothers’ escapades … the list goes on and on but the list doesn’t really extend into the past few years.

Instead of stories, personalities and fireworks on the track, we’ve had more changes than anything else in recent years. NASCAR introduced the new car, which definitely is safer than its predecessor, but went too far by putting a wing on it and taking it further from a stock car look. Now the wing is coming off. Bump stops have been implemented; technical inspection is a monster of a process in and of itself; bump-drafting was outlawed at Talladega last year; and several mile-and-a-half or two-mile tracks in major media markets have been added in recent years. Some of these tracks are so large and non-conducive to the best type of racing that fans have shied away from them. Heck, I remember in the ‘90s when a big change was taking a ½ inch off someone’s rear spoiler.

However, some of the changes have been positive, such as the double-file restarts and the Chase points system, and have helped the sport evolve. Other sports that have been around for decades continue to evolve as well, such as improved gloves, knee pads and catchers’ masks in baseball, but NASCAR has produced too much change, too quickly.

But the sanctioning body now realizes this, is learning from and acting on it. Hence, the amendments announced this week which really are retractions that take us back to previous decades. I truly hope these actions help propel the sport back to the days of rubbing and racing and feuds between drivers. I think we all miss the great rivalries between characters such as Cale Yarborough, David Pearson and Bobby Allison, and I hope the less that NASCAR polices the sport, the closer we’ll inch toward those days.

Kenny Wallace is a driver in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, in which he has amassed nine career wins and 10 pole positions and finished in the top 10 in series points in all but one season in which he has competed. In 2009, Wallace marked his 800th NASCAR career start, ranking him 17th on the all-time list. He also keeps the mood light and humorous each week as an analyst on NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane on SPEED. Currently in his 21st year in Nationwide Series, Wallace finished runner-up in the points in 1991 and is one of only four drivers to have won the Most Popular Driver award multiple times. He also drives the No. 36 Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar entry. To learn more about Wallace or to sign up to follow him on Facebook or Twitter, please visit www.kennywallace.com.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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