Drivers Gearing Toward Talladega

The race at Talledega today most likely will be more exciting that the Daytona 500. That shouldn’t be hard.

Dale Jarrett’s victory in the season-opening event produced little action up front, with most of the nine lead changes taking place during pit stops.

The race was probably the most uneventful at Daytona International Speedway since mid-1987 when NASCAR began using carburetor restrictor plates to slow the cars at its two longest and fastest ovals--Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway.

The plates, restricting airflow to the carburetor, sap horsepower from the engines and tend to keep the cars bunched up throughout the race. That generally leads to some great competitive racing and some wild multicar crashes.

At Daytona in February, there was neither.

“People say the Daytona 500 was boring this year, and I’m sure the only reason they say that is because there were no big wrecks,” said Mark Martin, who finished fifth that day. “The fans love to see cars wadded up, but that is not what the drivers want to see.”

Martin, coming off a victory last Sunday on the half-mile oval in Martinsville, Va., and the rest of the Winston Cup field faces the 2.66-mile Talladega track in the DieHard 500.

“I don’t think any driver can say that he is comfortable running at Talladega,” Martin said. “We’ve had some good runs there, but there is a lot of luck involved in addition to having a good car.”

This race will be a little different than Daytona since NASCAR announced a rule change in March. At Daytona, NASCAR issued all of the shocks and springs. This week, each team will be able to run its own front springs and shocks, while NASCAR will still issue the rear springs and shocks.

“We tested at Daytona for two days this week trying to figure out how that will change the handling of the race car,” Martin said. “We are going to take the same car we ran in the Daytona 500, but it will be a completely different race.

“When everyone had the same shocks and springs, it made handling really important. I liked that and I think it helped our team a lot. I’m afraid Talladega will be just like any other restrictor plate race in the past.”

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Dale Earnhardt is the acknowledged master of restrictor plate racing. So much so that team owner Richard Childress has said he believes Earnhardt can see the air as the cars race in the draft.

Although the seven-time Winston Cup champion finished 21st in Daytona earlier this season, his record on the big tracks since the plates were introduced would seem to support Childress’ theory.

The defending DieHard 500 champion has won 11 times and has 31 top-five finishes in 51 restrictor-plate starts on the two tracks.

“He just has a natural knack, the ability to know what’s going on around him and watching the moves everybody else is making,” Childress said.