Plate Racing In New Hampshire
Dateline: 09/18/2000Last week there was much speculation about how the restrictor plates would affect the racing at New Hampshire International Speedway. As it turned out there wasn't a single pass for the lead all day long and the outcome of the race was never really in doubt. But even given all that I still believe that the addition of the restrictor plates actually improved the racing that we saw in Loudon on Sunday.
Some History
Now before you get all excited and blast off on the boards let's put this weekend's race in perspective. The NASCAR Winston Cup drivers have been going to NHIS since 1993. Can anyone name me one competitive, interesting, good race that they've had up there? (Featherlight Modified races don't count) The flat one-mile speedway just isn't a breeding ground for the full-bodied stock cars to have interesting races.
And let's not forget that the whole purpose behind this rule change was to enhance safety. NASCAR did not have time to thoroughly test some of the other safety alternatives (soft walls, automatic kill switches) before returning to Loudon so simply slowing the cars down is a good interim solution. The restrictor plate is designed to reduce the horsepower in the motors and slow the cars so the decision to use them makes perfect sense. If I've got to hit the wall I'd much rather do it at 140mph instead of 150mph.
Two Ways Around
So now let's look again at this weekend's show. Sure Jeff Burton had 'em covered all day long, but look back behind him and you would have seen side-by-side racing from start to finish. The engine's lack of acceleration up off the corners made the racetrack effectively have two identical grooves. The low groove is the short way around but bogs down the engine more while the high groove lets the driver keep his RPM's up and get a better run down the straight. This made for exciting racing from green to checkers.
More importantly, no drivers were injured this weekend so the racing weekend was a success all around.
If restrictor plates at Loudon means that the fans get a better race and the drivers are safer then this is a win-win situation for everybody. I believe that the plate experiment in New Hampshire was a huge success.
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Should NASCAR keep using the restrictor plates at Loudon??
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