re: 2020 Daytona 500 - UPDATE: Ryan Newman RELEASED from hospital

Whoever welded Newman’s car deserves a raise.

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They also moved the driver further away from the door toward the center of the car,

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ithis surely helped

The July race, or maybe another series, remove the restrictor plates and use the backstretch chicane. Daytona has a good one for stock cars.

Plate drafting is played out. People don’t really enjoy it like they used to. It’s more like jockeying for position on a busy interstate.

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Plate drafting is played out. People don’t really enjoy it like they used to

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I disagree. Doing away with races like the Daytona 500 and Talladega would completely end my interest in NASCAR.

They need to figure out a way to allow these cars to break away from the pack and run alone without getting speeds too crazy high. Need to get the field strung out and get away from pack racing.

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They need to figure out a way to allow these cars to break away from the pack and run alone without getting speeds too crazy high. Need to get the field strung out and get away from pack racing.

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NASCAR won’t do this either. They can’t do this. Pack racing draws the best viewership. So NASCAR needs it to survive. That sounds crude, I know, but it’s how it is. NASCAR will make safety improvements to the car after this. Everyone’s emotions are running high, but NASCAR can’t make rash decisions.

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It was pretty shitty of NASCAR to wait 2hrs to update all the concerned fans of Newman's condition, serious but NOT LIFE THREATENING, when most everyone thought he was dead.

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NASCAR can’t pass along info that it doesn’t have. It had to wait until doctors could evaluate him and provide them with accurate information. Reports of “witnesses” aren’t enough for NASCAR to declare that Newman is fine. Heck, being conscious does not mean one’s injuries are non-life threatening.

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They need to figure out a way to allow these cars to break away from the pack and run alone

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How are they gonna do that on 2 lap restarts/OT?

Buddy Backer always wanted the restrictor plate removed and flatten the banking in the corners

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They need to figure out a way to allow these cars to break away from the pack and run alone without getting speeds too crazy high. Need to get the field strung out and get away from pack racing.

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As far as I know, there are three options for keeping the speeds at Daytona/Talladega from getting too high.

You can totally revamp the tracks and bulldoze out the banking and make the turns much flatter. This way you have to lift/brake when getting to the turns. But, as big as the tracks are, you are still going to get big speeds...California and Michigan can see 200+ going into turn 1, because you are on the gas from the time you hit the apex of 3&4.

You can keep the restrictor plates/tapered spacers. This is what you have now. You can narrow the spacers, but you then reduce throttle response and end up with the pack racing. An unrestricted engine can get up to speed in half a lap or so, but the plate tracks take most of a lap. If you crack the throttle, you can't just stand on it and be right back up there, so the drivers stay wide open all the way all the time and control closing speeds with brief taps on the brake.

Make the engines much smaller, maybe even down to a 4 cylinder, for these two tracks. At that point you might be able to produce low enough HP numbers to keep the speeds down and still give the drivers the throttle response they need to not stay in it all the time. But that would go against the "cost saving" mantra that NASCAR tries to preach. Although we know it doesn't really keep the cost down in the grand scheme of things, the gear rule, the engine package rule, and several other mechanical rules, are supposed to keep costs somewhat down so that the non-superteams have a shot at competing. Mandating special engines (not just special engine parts) for 4 races a year would be a big R&D and manufacturing expense for the teams.