Posted by R'GEE on 11/2/2009, 5:45 pm
Nascar Earnhardt Fan

NASCAR says bump-drafting rules not to blame for single-file Talladega racing By SceneDaily StaffSunday, November 01, 2009RSS Feed Print this ArticleEmail to a Friend Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE Share Facebook Del.icio.us DIGG This Reddit Newsvine Stumbeupon 31 Comments TALLADEGA, Ala. – NASCAR’s change in the rules to forbid bump-drafting in the turns worked as planned for the most part and should not be blamed for the single-file racing fans saw for much of the first half of the Sprint Cup Amp Energy 500 Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said. “A lot of 500-mile races, when you listen to the teams, they work on their cars, they get their cars to handle and then they log laps during a small portion or the middle third of the race in order to have their equipment ready for the end of the race,” Pemberton said in the garage after the event. “It’s not uncommon of any 500-mile race that you see that. … [The accidents that] happened today, we didn’t have any major incidents in the corner. “The two wrecks that happened, they happened in the free zone where we weren’t monitoring the bump-drafting or anything like that.” Pemberton said cars might have gotten a little more strung out than usual, but drivers were just learning how to deal with the new rule in the turns. After the restart on lap 109, the remainder of the 191-lap race was fairly dicey. “There were times they were not four wide as they may have been in the past and maybe not three wide, and they were [instead] two wide,” Pemberton said. “As the race progressed, many of the drivers got better and better at getting up to the bump in front of them and getting within four or five inches to the guy ahead of them. It’s an art form that they generally have the ability to develop.” The rule was made because NASCAR saw too many dangerous situations in the practice Friday. During the April Cup race at the track, Phoenix Racing’s Brad Keselowski pushed Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards for a full lap, which was turned at 200.7 mph. “We don’t dream these things up,” Pemberton said. “A lot of these things come out of the garage area. Drivers that have a lot of experience that are winners and they bring the concerns to us that it is getting too aggressive and I think Friday was evidence how aggressive everybody was. “Even though they were practicing for Sunday’s race, we saw things there that were more aggressive than we’ve seen in the past and we had some drivers that brought it up to us that they were concerned that the bump-drafting or the hooking up in the corners was not going to be a good thing.” NASCAR never issued a penalty in Sunday's race. There were times when Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said something to a crew chief. “If it was something that was a warning that was like the final warning, we would have put it out on the main channel and we didn’t do that,” Pemberton said. “These guys are very good at what they do. It takes them a very short period of time to figure out the best way around these race tracks. “As the race went on, guys got a little bit better at how to run the draft, work the draft and pass cars.” By SceneDaily StaffSunday, November 01, 2009RSS Feed Print this ArticleEmail to a Friend Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE Share Facebook Del.icio.us DIGG This Reddit Newsvine Stumbeupon 31 Comments TALLADEGA, Ala. – NASCAR’s change in the rules to forbid bump-drafting in the turns worked as planned for the most part and should not be blamed for the single-file racing fans saw for much of the first half of the Sprint Cup Amp Energy 500 Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said. “A lot of 500-mile races, when you listen to the teams, they work on their cars, they get their cars to handle and then they log laps during a small portion or the middle third of the race in order to have their equipment ready for the end of the race,” Pemberton said in the garage after the event. “It’s not uncommon of any 500-mile race that you see that. … [The accidents that] happened today, we didn’t have any major incidents in the corner. “The two wrecks that happened, they happened in the free zone where we weren’t monitoring the bump-drafting or anything like that.” Pemberton said cars might have gotten a little more strung out than usual, but drivers were just learning how to deal with the new rule in the turns. After the restart on lap 109, the remainder of the 191-lap race was fairly dicey. “There were times they were not four wide as they may have been in the past and maybe not three wide, and they were [instead] two wide,” Pemberton said. “As the race progressed, many of the drivers got better and better at getting up to the bump in front of them and getting within four or five inches to the guy ahead of them. It’s an art form that they generally have the ability to develop.” The rule was made because NASCAR saw too many dangerous situations in the practice Friday. During the April Cup race at the track, Phoenix Racing’s Brad Keselowski pushed Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards for a full lap, which was turned at 200.7 mph. “We don’t dream these things up,” Pemberton said. “A lot of these things come out of the garage area. Drivers that have a lot of experience that are winners and they bring the concerns to us that it is getting too aggressive and I think Friday was evidence how aggressive everybody was. “Even though they were practicing for Sunday’s race, we saw things there that were more aggressive than we’ve seen in the past and we had some drivers that brought it up to us that they were concerned that the bump-drafting or the hooking up in the corners was not going to be a good thing.” NASCAR never issued a penalty in Sunday's race. There were times when Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said something to a crew chief. “If it was something that was a warning that was like the final warning, we would have put it out on the main channel and we didn’t do that,” Pemberton said. “These guys are very good at what they do. It takes them a very short period of time to figure out the best way around these race tracks. “As the race went on, guys got a little bit better at how to run the draft, work the draft and pass cars.”

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