After a crash, at Talladega, that made Carl Edwards wreck in May a mere memory; Ryan Newman was very critical of how NASCAR officials handled the stewardship of the race.
Back in May, and perhaps earlier, it became obvious that two-car I(Car of Tomorrow) drafts produced higher speeds than (the older body style) multi-car drafts. As Brad Keselowski hooked up with Edwards in the closing laps they ran away from their rivals at very-high speeds.
As they neared the checkered flag Keselowski made a move and Edwards blocked, too late. The contact sent Edwards car high in the air. Something had to be done to prevent that.
On Friday NASCAR warned drivers that they wanted to see “sunshine” between the cars. In fact they parked Michael Waltrip before the end of practice because he was bump drafting Jimmie Johnson around the 2.66 mile oval.
On Sunday, at the drivers meeting, NASCAR president, Mike Helton, gave a long explanation of what was expected of the drivers and stressing that there was to be no bump drafting in the turns. Additionally, officials were looking for aggressive driving anywhere.
The reaction from the drivers, in the race, was long periods of single file racing, not the heart stopping three-wide and four-wide packs of the past. That is until there was five laps to go.
Ryan Newman went into the back of team owner Tony Stewart as Marcos Ambrose, with nowhere to go, slammed into the back of Newman’s car which became airborne and somersaulted onto its roof – first landing on the hood of Kevin Harvick’s Chevrolet before ricocheting off of it than skidding along the track into the SAFER Barrier in turn three. It finally came to rest in the soggy infield grass a few yards off the track’s apron after rolling once more.
The unlucky driver was pinned in his car upside down for almost 12 minutes. At first he couldn’t radio his crew that he was uninjured because the antenna was broken in the wreck.
When interviewed for television you could see his wrath. “We had this race back here in the spring and complained about cars getting airborne and now ironically I'm the guy that gets upside down.That's not something anybody wants to see at least I hope not. If they do, go home because you don't belong here. “ "It's just a product of this racing and what NASCAR has put us into with this box and these restrictor plates with these types of cars. You know with the yellow line, no bump-drafting, no passing.
The more rules, the more NASCAR is telling us how to drive the race cars, the less we can race and the less we can put on a show for the fans. As I said, I will go back in the day, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, all those guys, they respected each other. In the end there were some big accidents, but geez, we don't need the cars getting upside down like this. This is ridiculous,” he said.
Newman offered a way to fix the current situation.
"They have created a lot of the boredom because we couldn't race. It is survival. The race could have been 100 laps long and we could have had a great race. It is just not the way it is and it is unfortunate. I just hate it for the fans."
Back in May, and perhaps earlier, it became obvious that two-car I(Car of Tomorrow) drafts produced higher speeds than (the older body style) multi-car drafts. As Brad Keselowski hooked up with Edwards in the closing laps they ran away from their rivals at very-high speeds.
As they neared the checkered flag Keselowski made a move and Edwards blocked, too late. The contact sent Edwards car high in the air. Something had to be done to prevent that.
On Friday NASCAR warned drivers that they wanted to see “sunshine” between the cars. In fact they parked Michael Waltrip before the end of practice because he was bump drafting Jimmie Johnson around the 2.66 mile oval.
On Sunday, at the drivers meeting, NASCAR president, Mike Helton, gave a long explanation of what was expected of the drivers and stressing that there was to be no bump drafting in the turns. Additionally, officials were looking for aggressive driving anywhere.
The reaction from the drivers, in the race, was long periods of single file racing, not the heart stopping three-wide and four-wide packs of the past. That is until there was five laps to go.
Ryan Newman went into the back of team owner Tony Stewart as Marcos Ambrose, with nowhere to go, slammed into the back of Newman’s car which became airborne and somersaulted onto its roof – first landing on the hood of Kevin Harvick’s Chevrolet before ricocheting off of it than skidding along the track into the SAFER Barrier in turn three. It finally came to rest in the soggy infield grass a few yards off the track’s apron after rolling once more.
The unlucky driver was pinned in his car upside down for almost 12 minutes. At first he couldn’t radio his crew that he was uninjured because the antenna was broken in the wreck.
When interviewed for television you could see his wrath. “We had this race back here in the spring and complained about cars getting airborne and now ironically I'm the guy that gets upside down.That's not something anybody wants to see at least I hope not. If they do, go home because you don't belong here. “ "It's just a product of this racing and what NASCAR has put us into with this box and these restrictor plates with these types of cars. You know with the yellow line, no bump-drafting, no passing.
The more rules, the more NASCAR is telling us how to drive the race cars, the less we can race and the less we can put on a show for the fans. As I said, I will go back in the day, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, all those guys, they respected each other. In the end there were some big accidents, but geez, we don't need the cars getting upside down like this. This is ridiculous,” he said.
Newman offered a way to fix the current situation.
"They have created a lot of the boredom because we couldn't race. It is survival. The race could have been 100 laps long and we could have had a great race. It is just not the way it is and it is unfortunate. I just hate it for the fans."