Talladega racing is tough and dangerous

Mike Harris

Thursday, Oct. 14, 1999 | 4:43 a.m.

TALLADEGA, Ala. - No one should be fooled by any brave smiles on the faces of drivers preparing for Sunday's Winston 500.

Restrictor-plate racing causes fear and trepidation even in the most courageous of men.

"You wake up in the morning with an ache in the pit of your stomach," said Jeff Burton, a five-time winner this season in NASCAR's Winston Cup series. "I don't get nervous before any races with the exception of Daytona and Talladega."

Those are the two longest and fastest ovals on NASCAR's top circuit, and the only tracks at which the sanctioning body requires carburetor restrictor plates to keep the cars under 200 mph in the interest of safety for both drivers and the spectators.

The plates reduce airflow to the carburetor, thereby cutting considerable horsepower.

It works as intended, but the consequence is that the cars have about the same horsepower, keeping them bunched like long freight trains. That, added to a slower throttle response, virtually guarantees at least one multicar crash during each race.

"It's difficult when you're running 20th and the leader is a second ahead of you and you're sitting there just hoping to miss the wreck," Burton said.

Beyond the danger lurking on Talladega's 2.66-mile oval, Dale Earnhardt says the plates have taken away some of the enjoyment of competition.

"I enjoy racing on the big tracks, but it used to be more fun than it is now because we could run wide open with no restrictor plates," said Earnhardt, who won the spring race in Talladega, as well as last year's Daytona 500. "Before the restrictor plates, you would carry so much speed going into the corners that you had to lift to make it around.

"Now, it's straight leg, foot to the floor all the way around the track, and the first one that lifts goes back to the end of the line."

And, as much success as Earnhardt - a master of drafting at Daytona and Talladega - has had at the big tracks, he knows how fast they can bite you.

He was caught up in a 21-car crash in Talladega in April of 1998, and finished 36th.

Ward Burton says the best plans often don't matter.

"You've got to be good and you've got to be lucky to win at Talladega," he said. "You can't be one or the other. You have to be both."

Last April, his Pontiac was a top-five car, one he easily felt could have won the DieHard 500.

"Bad luck is another car running into us on pit road and doing enough damage to completely take us out of the running for anything," he recalled.

But, it's on the track where most of the problems arise in Talladega.

"The big wreck is the thing that's on everybody's mind once the race starts," he said. "If you're going to win the race, you have to finish. You start figuring that big wreck is going to happen at some point."

Ward noted that Talladega is one of the few tracks where running near the rear of the field in the early going could become an advantage.

"Look at the big wreck in the first Talladega race last year," he said. "There were a bunch of guys struggling a little bit during the day, but then a bunch of cars starting running into each other with about 40 laps to go.

"The ones who missed the wreck ended up, at the worst, with halfway decent finishes. The wrecks went to the garage and had a terrible day."

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