2009 NASCAR running thread

No. The wreck at Talladega prompted the idiotic restrictor plates.

Allison was T-boned driver-side at Pocono, effectively ending his driving career.

 

I suspect you were thinking of Bobby's career-ender at Pocono 13 months later.

 

Yes I was.

 

Well, that was one hell of a finish.

A couple thoughts:

1. This no passing below the yellow line business is horseshit. Let them pass anywhere they want on the last lap. I'm not saying it would have prevented today's melee, but it might have. It's actually more dangerous with the yellow line in play than without.
2. I don't think I've been this shocked about a winner since I watched Jimmy Spencer win the Pepsi 400 live. Even though Finch bought the damn car from Hendrick, a single car win is a single car win.
3. Everything Keselowski did in those final five laps was brilliant. I'm impressed. I don't recall Mark Martin or Rusty Wallace ever winning at a plate track. So he's already got that on them.
4. The catch fence sure did its job, didn't it? That could have been a horrendous tragedy.
5. While that was a terrible-looking wreck, it doesn't even crack my top five for the worst Ive seen at Dega:
You've got the Rusty Wallace flip from 15 years ago.
You've got Jimmy Means (at least I think it was him) actually leaving the track surface.
You've got the horrendous Ricky Craven debacle.
And Mark Martin's horrifying journey through the infield.

But the Edwards wreck does crack the top-five and is probably the most spectacular crash in the Car of Today.

I loved the Johnson interview after his wreck: "Man, it sucks racing here"

 

Johnson had another good line, too, something like, "I guess when somebody dies they'll talk about changing something."

 

That sounds a lot like Edwards' quote after the race.

And I think Elliott Sadler's 2003 flip through the 'dega grass warrants a mention.

 

Dammit! I thought it was Edwards, then Podunk's comment got me second-guessing myself and I went with Johnson.

 

I watched this one live in '93. Referenced above, it was actually Jimmy Horton who went over the top. Stan Smith was very badly injured in the wreck too.

Definitely up there among the worst non-fatals I've witnessed ...

Restrictor plate racing is the most needlessly dangerous thing in racing I can think of.

 

For those who didn't see it, a good video of the Edwards wreck.

 

They are not the first to say that; Mark Martin and Tony Stewart, among others, have both said the same thing.. Martin has been saying it for years.

 

Martin has always whined about plate racing. I even asked him in an interview once if he was so much against it, why didn't he just refuse to race? Start, get credit for the points and turn the car over to someone else. He didn't like that too much.

I for one like plate racing. There were 57 lead changes yesterday. You wouldn't get 57 lead changes in four races at Bristol.