Talladega After Thoughts from a NASCAR Fan’s View

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Chase race six at Talladega turned out to be exactly what many of the twelve Chasers feared it would be… unpredictable and a race they would have rather not had to run. It was also a race that separated the ones that can win the championship from the ones that can forget about it this year and, at least from this fan’s view, the real players are coming into focus. A quick glance at the finishing order show only three of the twelve Chasers in the top ten, so, even though some of the top guns had bad days, those behind them had worse days and Carl Edwards still sits first place in points.

One good thing came out of it for Denny Hamlin, he finished eighth and that was good enough to move him up in the field. Now he is no longer twelfth in points and happily turned that spot over to Ryan Newman, at least for now. He is separated from Jeff Gordon in tenth spot by only two points and just ten points from Dale Jr in ninth. As I said before, those three are falling back faster than Denny when it comes to the points and, unless his luck changes soon, Jeff Gordon could be battling Ryan Newman for the Twelfth spot. They’re only separated by six points at the moment and neither one of them can seem to catch a break since the Chase began.

There was a lot of chatter about how some of the teams chose to ride around in the back while others chose to race out front. (Notice I purposely chose the words ‘ride’ and ‘race’…) The complaint seems to come from the journalists section in particular and they suggest the fans are being cheated by those that choose not to race until the end of the race. I do understand where they’re coming from, but I do not necessarily agree with them.

Restrictor plate racing with the COT and especially at Talladega has become a strategy race. The teams absolutely have to do what they think they have to do to be around at the end of the race or they have no chance at winning it. Yes, it has changed the way the race looks now, but until NASCAR and the teams find something that works differently, this fan thinks we need to accept what we have knowing that NASCAR will do what it thinks is necessary to improve the situation. I am confident, they will eventually find a happy medium to remedy the situation. As it is, the racing isn’t that bad anyway, at least from my view.

One noticeable thing about the racing and the choices being made along the way as strategies and partners had to change. It didn’t matter much whether teams or partners chose to run in the front or the back. Apparently it wasn’t safe anywhere and accidents that gathered more than one Chaser happened in both places and in the middle, too. From this fan’s view, it just goes to show they’re not 100% safe no matter where they choose to run in this type of racing. It didn’t happen to those running out front, but either their partner or the ones that tried to pass or run with them could have caused the front runners difficulty as well.

Another problem with the two car tandem drafting reared it’s ugly head again at the Talladega track and that was what happens to one driver’s chances when his planned running partner runs into problems or they get separated for some reason. This last weekend showed a lot of people being left without their running partner at one time or another during the race. Plans had to change on the fly and sometimes people were left out in the cold causing some disappointments for more than one.

From my view, it appeared there was a lot of tension, resulting in impatience and the usual split second mistakes in judgement that caused accidents or some other sort of problem for several. It was clear the strategy chosen by some worked out well and for others, not at all.

One thing was definitely apparent at the end of the day. With all of it’s problems and drawbacks, restrictor plated racing is still unique and this fan finds it quite entertaining and exciting. I don’t think anyone can argue with the way this Talladega Super Speedway race finished between Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton. It was another close one and was decided on the final part of the final lap and from this fan’s view, generally, you just can’t hardly get better than that. Well… that is unless you wanted someone else to win… )

See ya next time…
All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer
© October 28, 2011 – all rights reserved
Rusty Norman and Nascarfansview.com
All audio productions by www.podcastnorm.com and PodCastNorm Productions

Published by Rusty Norman

Rusty Norman is a writer, Big NASCAR Fan, Jesus believer, musician and former local Stock Car racer. singer, songwriter, author and blogger. He was born in Southern Illinois and moved to Florida with his parents in 1962. His first story was published in the 1968 school literary magazine when he was a junior at Cypress Lake High School in Fort Myers, FL. Although he didn't venture into writing immedately, he did begin writing regularly over twenty-five years ago. He has also been a sound technician over the last 40 plus years and produces, almost weekly blogcasts during the racing season on his Nascar websites as well as being involved in the media ministry at First Assembly of God in Fort Myers, FL. He maintains several websites, each with a different focus, and continues writing songs, poetry and short stories along with articles like those found in his "Living Life Notes" series. He has just released the first of three planned books in the Living Life Notes series. The second is expected to be released in the middle to late September of this year and the third is planned to be released sometime in 2015. He also has several other books and stories in the works as well,