"No he can't", his car was caught in a wreck early and it was too badly damaged to have any shot. But he kept racing. And he will try it again at a few carefully selected races throughout the season.
To give a little more perspective into the issue of restrictor plates and why they're fairly important; a few people have touched on the safety issue, and Davey Allison's wreck is what started this whole idea, but I want to put some numbers out there.
In 1987, Bill Elliott ran a qualifying lap at almost 213 miles per hour. 1987. 213. Had that projectory continued, with technology and aerodynamics and whatnot that we have today, the cars would roughly be traveling a million miles an hour. The slightest bump would send a car flying, potentially destroying the catch fence and doing some damage to the fans.
It's had the consequence, intended or otherwise, of bunching the cars up and creating pack racing, but the original intention was safety.
As someone who has never been that into NASCAR, I have always wondered why Dayton was such a big deal. Is it because it is an older, traditional race? Is it because it is the start of the season? (Which seems weird to me because this is the opposite of basically any other sport)
The article above about restrictor plate racing made me wonder of it is because of that. Longer track and less top speed seems to lean towards the fact that while the best team, and mechanics might win the other races, Daytona might be more of a test of who is the best driver.
Am I off base here? Perhaps someone with more knowledge can help.
I think Nathaniel explains the history well. What I will add is Daytona has always been the biggest deal in NASCAR. I think because the 500 is the beginning of the season, but the July 4 race is also at Daytona, so those are two very big races both at Daytona
Daytona is a very important race because of the history. Automobiles began racing on the sand of Daytona Beach in 1902 when, believe it or not, there was a restriction on how heavy a car could be because they believed a heavy car would be faster. This was, obviously before the early moonshiner races that birthed NASCAR, but the sands of Daytona became important to those drivers as the place you went to test yourself against the best. Lots of time and evolution of the sport brought us to the current speedway and the Daytona 500.
Restrictor plate racing is generally considered to be more random. The cars are often bunched up at high speeds, so the inevitable wrecks can easily eliminate 20-30% of the field. And that often includes top teams/drivers.
Because of this, the teams that may have trouble competing in a “normal” race can find themselves in contention, if only due to attrition.
I don’t think Johnson has a chance because restrictor plates favor the best drivers. He has a chance because the luck factor is increased and that favors the inferior teams.
With restrictor plates, the cars get all bunched up. And there’s some thing about aerodynamics that allows the second car to move in a way to cause the first car immediately in front of it to wreck. So at the end, when you are behind somebody, you can just wreck them if you want to. Which means, you don’t want to be leading with five laps to go, or four laps to go, or three laps to go. So it’s kind of luck of the draw after those inevitable cautions who snags the lead in time so they can cross the finish line without somebody wrecking them. So it makes it exciting for the fans, although maybe not a true test of skill for the drivers
But you also need to have a good team, because the cars can literally push each other to add speed. So you want to be in front with three or four cars behind you pushing you along.
I never cared about NASCAR when I was younger. Then I learned that moonshiner history, and now I see it in a different light, and while I'm not a fan, I respect the hell out of it and the people who drive the cars. Maybe one day I'll go to a race, just to check that box.
I first learned the history from reading Joe Posnanski write about it. Tyler Mahan Coe (son of David Allan Coe) talked about it extensively in an episode of season 2 of his "Cocaine and Rhinestones" history of country music podcast (highest recommendation - it's about icons like George Jones, not meh material like Florida-Georgia Line). It's really interesting!
I had to chime in on the "oh no, not NASCAR" topic. I had a similar thought when it came to the "Fame" thing, "so, we're going to talk about 'famous' people, rather than people good at the sport now? And we can have silly debates about who was more famous? Leave me out".
But, of course, I read the first articles and it was interesting writing about . . . people. That was the main thing about "The Baseball 100" after all.
Sometimes you go to a bookstore (or the 2024 equivalent) and you pick out a book based on what it is about and sometimes you go by the author. When it is the latter, you may not even think you are interested in the topic, but you are saying, "okay, author, I trust you".
Restrictor plates reduce the overall speed of the cars doe safety reasons. Without them, the cars may run around 230mph. Just above 200mph, the car will fly in the air at the slightest disturbance, especially if the car is backwards or sideways. Before restrictor plates, cars were close to flying into the grandstands, so it's a fan safety issue. Not that it can't happen at other speeds, but the risk of cars flying in the air incredibly increases over 200mph based on the design of a stock car.
A couple folks mentioned how little interest they have in NASCAR. If you watch the race, or at least the end, with somebody who knows about racing so they can tell you what’s going on and answer your questions, you might like it better. How many times have we all heard from somebody how boring they think baseball is? You have to have a basic level of knowledge about a sport before you can appreciate it. And I find the NASCAR drivers among the most interesting characters in sports
Totally agree with Jimmie’s thought. The goal for him should just be try to survive until the end, and then get lucky. It always takes luck when the cars are bunched the way they will be, because there are so many crashes, and you don’t have any time to avoid them. And, the team aspect matters a lot more when the cars are bunched like that. The cars actually push each other, but the guy behind you can cause you to wreck at any time
Also, it’s supposed to rain Sunday in Daytona. So we will see…
OK, I answered my own question, sorta. Wikipedia says there’s one NASCAR series that uses carburetors (“Xfinity”); otherwise, they use fuel injection. So the restrictor plate sits somewhere and does something, but mostly not the way it’s described in passing here.
Mostly I am adding this to quote the Wikipedia article that says:
“Outside the NASCAR racing circuit, the American automobile manufacturers would make the final two models to run on carburetors: the 1990 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser and the 1990 Buick Estate Wagon. Neither of these vehicles raced in NASCAR during the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season …”
Which is a shame, because I do love the idea of a NASCAR race involving three-row station wagons.
It's essentially a fixed-aperture choke. Even fuel-injected engines still make use of a choke - commercial and commercial vehicles use automatic variable chokes.
"No he can't", his car was caught in a wreck early and it was too badly damaged to have any shot. But he kept racing. And he will try it again at a few carefully selected races throughout the season.
To give a little more perspective into the issue of restrictor plates and why they're fairly important; a few people have touched on the safety issue, and Davey Allison's wreck is what started this whole idea, but I want to put some numbers out there.
In 1987, Bill Elliott ran a qualifying lap at almost 213 miles per hour. 1987. 213. Had that projectory continued, with technology and aerodynamics and whatnot that we have today, the cars would roughly be traveling a million miles an hour. The slightest bump would send a car flying, potentially destroying the catch fence and doing some damage to the fans.
It's had the consequence, intended or otherwise, of bunching the cars up and creating pack racing, but the original intention was safety.
As someone who has never been that into NASCAR, I have always wondered why Dayton was such a big deal. Is it because it is an older, traditional race? Is it because it is the start of the season? (Which seems weird to me because this is the opposite of basically any other sport)
The article above about restrictor plate racing made me wonder of it is because of that. Longer track and less top speed seems to lean towards the fact that while the best team, and mechanics might win the other races, Daytona might be more of a test of who is the best driver.
Am I off base here? Perhaps someone with more knowledge can help.
I think Nathaniel explains the history well. What I will add is Daytona has always been the biggest deal in NASCAR. I think because the 500 is the beginning of the season, but the July 4 race is also at Daytona, so those are two very big races both at Daytona
Daytona is a very important race because of the history. Automobiles began racing on the sand of Daytona Beach in 1902 when, believe it or not, there was a restriction on how heavy a car could be because they believed a heavy car would be faster. This was, obviously before the early moonshiner races that birthed NASCAR, but the sands of Daytona became important to those drivers as the place you went to test yourself against the best. Lots of time and evolution of the sport brought us to the current speedway and the Daytona 500.
Restrictor plate racing is generally considered to be more random. The cars are often bunched up at high speeds, so the inevitable wrecks can easily eliminate 20-30% of the field. And that often includes top teams/drivers.
Because of this, the teams that may have trouble competing in a “normal” race can find themselves in contention, if only due to attrition.
I don’t think Johnson has a chance because restrictor plates favor the best drivers. He has a chance because the luck factor is increased and that favors the inferior teams.
With restrictor plates, the cars get all bunched up. And there’s some thing about aerodynamics that allows the second car to move in a way to cause the first car immediately in front of it to wreck. So at the end, when you are behind somebody, you can just wreck them if you want to. Which means, you don’t want to be leading with five laps to go, or four laps to go, or three laps to go. So it’s kind of luck of the draw after those inevitable cautions who snags the lead in time so they can cross the finish line without somebody wrecking them. So it makes it exciting for the fans, although maybe not a true test of skill for the drivers
But you also need to have a good team, because the cars can literally push each other to add speed. So you want to be in front with three or four cars behind you pushing you along.
Is 100 things we love about NASCAR forthcoming? Please.
NASCAR died when Dale did.
I never cared about NASCAR when I was younger. Then I learned that moonshiner history, and now I see it in a different light, and while I'm not a fan, I respect the hell out of it and the people who drive the cars. Maybe one day I'll go to a race, just to check that box.
I first learned the history from reading Joe Posnanski write about it. Tyler Mahan Coe (son of David Allan Coe) talked about it extensively in an episode of season 2 of his "Cocaine and Rhinestones" history of country music podcast (highest recommendation - it's about icons like George Jones, not meh material like Florida-Georgia Line). It's really interesting!
I have zero interest in Nascar but a well written article about anything is a good read.
I can’t be the only one who thought after reading the headline that the former Cowboys coach owned a car at Daytona.
But I agree with everyone here. Great article. I wonder if Johnson chose to live in the UK because he likes those tight left turns.
I had to chime in on the "oh no, not NASCAR" topic. I had a similar thought when it came to the "Fame" thing, "so, we're going to talk about 'famous' people, rather than people good at the sport now? And we can have silly debates about who was more famous? Leave me out".
But, of course, I read the first articles and it was interesting writing about . . . people. That was the main thing about "The Baseball 100" after all.
Sometimes you go to a bookstore (or the 2024 equivalent) and you pick out a book based on what it is about and sometimes you go by the author. When it is the latter, you may not even think you are interested in the topic, but you are saying, "okay, author, I trust you".
Joe's detours are also as interesting as his famed rabbit holes. Enjoyable as unexpected.
Restrictor plates reduce the overall speed of the cars doe safety reasons. Without them, the cars may run around 230mph. Just above 200mph, the car will fly in the air at the slightest disturbance, especially if the car is backwards or sideways. Before restrictor plates, cars were close to flying into the grandstands, so it's a fan safety issue. Not that it can't happen at other speeds, but the risk of cars flying in the air incredibly increases over 200mph based on the design of a stock car.
A couple folks mentioned how little interest they have in NASCAR. If you watch the race, or at least the end, with somebody who knows about racing so they can tell you what’s going on and answer your questions, you might like it better. How many times have we all heard from somebody how boring they think baseball is? You have to have a basic level of knowledge about a sport before you can appreciate it. And I find the NASCAR drivers among the most interesting characters in sports
Totally agree with Jimmie’s thought. The goal for him should just be try to survive until the end, and then get lucky. It always takes luck when the cars are bunched the way they will be, because there are so many crashes, and you don’t have any time to avoid them. And, the team aspect matters a lot more when the cars are bunched like that. The cars actually push each other, but the guy behind you can cause you to wreck at any time
Also, it’s supposed to rain Sunday in Daytona. So we will see…
I was looking forward to #47 Kirk Gibson
You’re just goading Jenifer, right?
A bigger reason for the restrictor plates is that the speeds would be too dangerous if the cars ran full throttle at Daytona and Talladega.
Do NASCAR cars still have carburetors?
OK, I answered my own question, sorta. Wikipedia says there’s one NASCAR series that uses carburetors (“Xfinity”); otherwise, they use fuel injection. So the restrictor plate sits somewhere and does something, but mostly not the way it’s described in passing here.
Mostly I am adding this to quote the Wikipedia article that says:
“Outside the NASCAR racing circuit, the American automobile manufacturers would make the final two models to run on carburetors: the 1990 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser and the 1990 Buick Estate Wagon. Neither of these vehicles raced in NASCAR during the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season …”
Which is a shame, because I do love the idea of a NASCAR race involving three-row station wagons.
It's essentially a fixed-aperture choke. Even fuel-injected engines still make use of a choke - commercial and commercial vehicles use automatic variable chokes.
I come for Famous baseball Player No. 48 . . .
. . . and I stay for an article about a sport (?) I know nothing about, and care about less.
Joe, never stop being you. Man.