Fryer’s Five: NASCAR neutered Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. – There are only a few things you can count on each year from NASCAR, and a great race at Talladega Superspeedway is pretty much guaranteed.

By great, I don’t mean the spectacular wrecks that have come to signify NASCAR’s fastest track. What makes Talladega so special is the bumping and the banging, the slicing and dicing for position, and the white-knuckle race to the finish line.

So if Sunday was your first exposure to Talladega, well, you sat through a tremendous letdown. That race fell far short of expectations, and nothing NASCAR says or does is going to convince anyone otherwise.

A pre-race ban on bump-drafting through the turns essentially neutered the race.

Warned by NASCAR president Mike Helton that bumping the car in front of you would only be permitted on the straightaways, the drivers were forced to back off each others bumpers and create “sunlight” between themselves. Since NASCAR was playing the judge, jury and executioner, nobody had any idea just what would be deemed illegal or how it would be punished.

It meant after an initial period that saw drivers going two- and three-wide in an attempt to gauge just what kind of car they had, they then pulled into one long single-file parade lap for a huge portion of the race.

Where were the daring lane changes? Or the dive bombs into holes that used to close in the blink of an eye?

Again, this isn’t about accidents, which for the record were reduced because of this strategy. This is about the lack of action at a track where excitement had previously been ensured for all 500 miles.

There were stretches of Sunday’s race where Tony Stewart complained he was having trouble staying awake, and Kevin Harvick’s crew joked they were going to find a place inside his car to install an iPod for his in-race enjoyment.

Others grumbled that the race should be cut in half, or even a 50-lap shootout, because the bulk of the event was being spent logging laps until it was time to actually go racing.

So things briefly did get interesting, somewhere around the 450-mile marker, when the action picked up and the race was plagued by two frightening crashes. A chain-reaction crash with five laps to go sent Ryan Newman straight up into the air, then back down on his roof, where he first landed on Harvick’s hood before sailing into the infield grass.

Newman was stuck there on his roof, which he said was akin to being in a tomb, for at least 10 minutes as the safety crew had to turn his car before needing another five minutes to cut away the crumpled sheet-metal roof. Newman was physically fine when he got out of the car, but the outspoken safety advocate was in a bit of a foul mood.

“I wish NASCAR would do something,” Newman said. “It was a boring race for the fans. That’s not something that anybody wants to see, at least I hope not. If they do, go home because you don’t belong here.

“Just a product of this racing – what NASCAR’s put us into with this box, with these restrictor plates, with these types cars, with the yellow line, with no bump-drafting, no passing. Drivers used to be able to respect each other and race around each other. Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison – all those guys have always done that. I guess they don’t think much of us any more.”

The second accident came during the two-lap sprint to the finish, and this time Mark Martin’s car went airborne and rolled. Martin, with 1009 career NASCAR starts, said it was his first time upside down.

These two incidents are what Sunday’s race will be remembered for. They overshadowed Jamie McMurray’s surprise victory, and Jimmie Johnson’s dumb-luck sixth-place finish.

But shame on NASCAR if they don’t pay attention to the disgruntled drivers and fans who all thought Talladega was a major disappointment.

Here are five more things from Talladega:

1. So just how did Sunday’s rule change come about?

It’s my understanding that at least one driver, maybe a few more, individually approached Helton with concerns over the growing trend of bump-drafting through the turns.

My guess is that four-time series champion Jeff Gordon was one of them, based solely on his comments leading into the race. On Friday, he spoke in detail of the progression of NASCAR’s new car and how it had unwittingly created the ability of a two-car breakaway. By using the bumper to push the lead car through the turns, those two cars could sail by a line of traffic and take over the race.

“That’s what I don’t understand – I thought there were no-bump zones or something like that,” Gordon said two days before the race. “The reason why that’s working and happening is because NASCAR is allowing the cars to push one another through the corners. So until they crack down on that, I think you’re going to see it come down to two guys locking up together like that, pushing one another, and then trying to figure out how to decide it among themselves.”

On Sunday morning, voila, bump-drafting through the corners was banned.

Helton’s announcement in the pre-race driver meeting created the liveliest exchange between NASCAR leadership and its participants in an open forum in quite some time. Juan Pablo Montoya demanded a guarantee that everyone – including the potential winner – would be punished equally. Carl Edwards asked how his April last-lap wreck would have been policed under the new policy.

Gordon wanted to make sure the policy had not been in place a day earlier in the Truck Race, when Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola hooked up in Busch’s win over Todd Bodine. Newman wanted to make sure NASCAR was prepared to punish up to four cars for one bumping incident.

At one point, when Helton tried to explain why the lead car would be punished if he was pushed through a turn, he started by saying, “The way I understand it, and I don’t drive one of these race cars, thank goodness …”

“Maybe you should try it sometime,” Kyle Busch shouted from the corner of the crowded room.

If Helton heard it, he didn’t let on.

But the tone was set in that meeting, when some drivers left confused and others left angry over NASCAR’s meddling. With rules already in place against passing below the yellow line and aggressive driving, the ban on using the bumper caused many to openly complain.

“Just let us race,” grumbled Denny Hamlin.

Indeed.

2. Does that mean the single-file parade was an organized response by the drivers:

This was heavily debated much of Sunday afternoon, particularly after Busch openly wondered on his radio if the single-file parade was akin to a drivers union.

In years past, the drivers climbed into two waiting buses to be taken to the pre-race introductions. With 20-some drivers on each bus, it’s plausible that an organized effort could have been pulled off.

But there was no bus ride this year, and aside from the crowded bullpen below the introductions stage, there isn’t really a time or place for enough drivers to concoct a plan against NASCAR.

A handful of drivers could have talked privately in the 90 or so minutes between the driver meeting and introductions, but that time is usually spent having lunch, changing into the firesuit, spending a few moments with family and mentally preparing for the race.

Could it have been unspoken? Maybe, but that’s giving a lot of credit to a lot of guys who aren’t typically on the same page.

Perhaps just a few drivers figured out the job action and enacted it, setting a tone that was either sensed throughout the rest of the field or impossible not to participate in.

As the race developed, though, the entire thought process could be easily debunked.

For starters, there were plenty of drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. included, who were clearly not sandbagging. And if the rule came about because a handful of drivers did indeed approach Helton, then it would have been their responsibility to get out of line and race legitimately.

The more likely explanation came from Kasey Kahne and Johnson, who said there’s simply no reason at Talladega to race hard until the end. They spend two-plus hours logging laps and staying out of trouble, then pick up the pace when it really counts.

“People know they shouldn’t race yet, there’s no need to,” Johnson said. “They might as well ride and log some miles. I know it’s boring for everybody else, but we breathe better when it’s single file at the top. We know at the end, we’ll bunch up and race.”

3. Is there a solution for Talladega?

Phew, this a tough one.

NASCAR makes new rules and changes the size of the holes in the restrictor plates. Track officials raise the fences to keep fans safe.

In the end, two cars still ended up upside down, making it four total over the last two weekends of racing at Talladega.

Nobody is happy about the conditions, not even Earnhardt Jr., a five-time Talladega winner who generally likes the intricacies of restrictor-plate racing.

“As long as we’re running three-wide with a motor that won’t go nowhere, and we’re just stuck, accidents are going to happen,” he said. “We have sort of out-engineered this race track somehow. You know what I mean? We over-engineered and the technology has sort of passed what they were trying to accomplish here when they built this place. What we are doing now is OK, but I don’t think it is the best solution.”

The solution may be the one thing that Johnson has called for after both Talladega races this season: Bring in a bulldozer and tear up the track.

“There is not a new angle,” he said. “The only way we avoid this, if anybody wants to avoid these big wrecks and this type of racing, is to eliminate the need for restrictor plates. That means get the tractors out and knock down the banking. We have to let off in order to avoid this.”

It seemed fairly outrageous the first time he said it, but it’s starting to make some sense. If the technology of the cars has indeed surpassed the capability of the track, then maybe something radical needs to be done.

4. Oh yeah, McMurray snapped an 86-race winless streak:

Good for Jamie Mac, who hasn’t had the results he seemed destined for when Chip Ganassi grabbed him as an injury replacement driver for Sterling Marlin in 2002 and he set a NASCAR record by winning in his second career Cup start.

Including Sunday’s win, there have been just two victories since, and both came in restrictor-plate races. The last win was in July, 2007 at Daytona.

But now McMurray finds himself stuck in the numbers crunch that is wreaking havoc on the NASCAR garage. Team owner Jack Roush has to cut a race team at the end of this season to meet the NASCAR mandated four-car cap, and McMurray is his only driver in a contract year.

Because sponsorship is so hard to find right now, Roush can’t find the funding needed to stow McMurray with his partners at Yates Racing, and those same economic issues are plaguing teams all across the garage.

In the end, there’s only one known ride available right now, the No. 1 at Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing. At least five current full-time drivers are looking for work next year, and with only one available seat, a lot of people are going to be left standing when the music stops three weeks from now in Homestead.

McMurray is realistic with the limited options available.

“I think that everybody knows that what rides there are out there,” he said. “Certainly if a sponsor were to call me, that would make it a lot easier with the amount of teams that are shutting down. There are not a lot of options out there, so I think everyone knows the cars that are available right now.

“For me, I just hope that we can get it, you know, signed and announce it whenever they want to so that it will make it a little bit easier to sleep at night.”

It’s interesting that of the drivers available, four of them used to drive for Ganassi, and except for David Stremme three of them left for allegedly greener pastures. But Casey Mears is on his second team and likely going to be a victim of sponsorship problems, Reed Sorenson has been told there’s no room for him next year at Richard Petty Motorsports, and Stremme is being replaced at Penske Racing by Brad Keselowski.

It makes one wonder if Ganassi was ever such a bad place to be, as the defectors sort of intimated when they moved on to something bigger and better.

If there was any doubt that McMurray was going to be in the No. 1 car next season, he probably erased it Sunday with a well-timed win. If he indeed does get the ride, he better make the most of the reunion.

5. Did I mention the championship race is over?

Johnson was rightfully nervous about Talladega, where unpredictability and his 17.7 average finish left him susceptible to allowing his competitors back into the title race.

Man, did he come close, too.

His strategy of racing in the back of the pack all day almost backfired when Johnson ran out of time to charge his way to the front. If not for Newman’s accident, he may have finished somewhere in the 20s and allowed Hendrick Motorsports teammate Martin to hack a chunk off of his points deficit.

Instead, crew chief Chad Knaus astutely recognized that Newman’s wreck would require a lengthy stoppage and he called Johnson in for fuel.

That decision literally wrapped up their record fourth consecutive championship.

When the clean-up took almost 13 minutes and several unplanned laps around the track under yellow, the cars ahead of Johnson began to run out of fuel. That included Martin, Gordon and Montoya, his three closest challengers in the standings.

When the dust finally settled, Johnson was an unbelievable sixth in the final finishing order and had widened his lead in the standings to 184 points with just three races remaining.

“I’m still in shock,” Johnson said. “We were in big trouble. I can’t believe that many guys ran out of fuel. I was so concerned about this race. I thought I was going to lose points.

“This isn’t Halloween, this is an early Christmas present. I thought we were in the 20s at best, and we came home with a top-10.”

These final three races of the season should be nothing more than a coronation for Johnson, who has won before at Texas and Phoenix and usually just needs a trouble-free race at Homestead to wrap up his title.

If Johnson finishes 10th or better in the three remaining races, there’s nothing anyone can do to catch him. Not that that was likely anyway. Even if Martin were to sweep the final three events of the year, the only reasonable way he could dethrone Johnson would be to kidnap him and lock him away in a secret room for the rest of the season.

Now, Johnson could very easily wrap up the title in two weeks at Phoenix.