Letter: Old races were better

Ron@lasvegassun.com

Friday, March 9, 2001 | 2:02 a.m.

The article Ron Kantowski wrote concerning NASCAR's obsession with close racing was an excellent one ("Who needs restrictor plates?" March 2).

I went to last pre-restrictor race at Daytona and can tell you the quality of racing was much better. NASCAR was terrified of the images of the Richard Petty crash in 1988 and concerned about the average speeds exceeding 200 mph. There were alternatives to restrictor plates that NASCAR could have implemented to ensure crowd safety. Instead the "lords" of NASCAR decided to keep the speeds down at the superspeedways which made for some pretty boring racing.

I, too, am sick and tired of ... crew chiefs running down pit road trying to make "deals" with other teams. This certainly is not racing. NASCAR is in danger of becoming the WWF of motorsports as a result of their artificial tinkering to make the racing closer.

You also raise a valid point as to why 42-44 cars are needed to compete on race day. The backmarkers are not competitive and are usually out there for sponsorship and exposure. They are not on the track to win or even place in the points (althought the way Winston Cup scoring works, even the pace car seems to collect points).

Keep up the great work.

--GEORGE SOWAN

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