One year after Bobby Allison's terrifying wreck at Talladega, ESPN produced this neat segment on the introduction of the restrictor plate - and driver's reactions to it - during the opening stages of the 1988 Winston 500.
Roof flaps finally fixed the issue. Keep the out-of-control cars from getting airborne, and you've done much more to keep them safe than simply slowing them down.
LackThere0f No they didn't fix the issue. Just ask Carl Edwards or Austin Dillon. Who both flew into catch fences with restrictor plates and roof flaps
@@speedy_j9368 yea but those were those stupid ass COT and that dumbass wing, that anybody with half a brain would have seen from the get go, would provide lift if they got turned around backwards.
SGTJDerek Dillion's car was this current gen car, not a COT Larson also got into the fence at Daytona in a NNS race on Saturday and that also wasn't a COT Car
@@JameyCampbell_54 both run on the COT chassis, so your point is invalid. However both examples you provided have nothing to do with the cars lifting on their own so it doesn't matter anyways.
The change to absorption barrier wall, mandatory full face helmet was the biggest improvement, decades after Smokey tried to get France yo adopt it, to the loss of DE to get it done and the HANS, but now the current France has f*does the whole show on his own.
That’s when it was really starting to takeoff late 80s through the 90s and then died mid 2000s now the grand stands are gone and so are the sponsors lol too many rules too many regulations too scared to hurt somebody’s feelings... I’m not saying the drivers shouldn’t be safe but when you crawl in to that cockpit you know what you’re getting into.
If you think 80's nascar was cool watch some group b rally footage🤣 shit was fucking crazy! They were also required restrictor plates and smaller engines but they would over bore and stroke them and fill the cylinders with cigarette buts so it would pass the displacement inspection. The engines would start the buts would burn and 900hp twin turbo v6 would be blasting through the trees
Ken Schrader was freaking profetic back then: "The plate ate it all up. Made us all the same speed and probably makes it more dangerous than when we were running 210". Yep, cars getting into the fence now is pretty commonplace, before it was rare.
Let's keep everyone going about the same speed so that the drivers will have to take higher risk maneuvers, and ballsy intimidation methods that creates more accidents, injuries, and deaths than previous unregulated systems. Fuckin genius!
Doesn't matter if it's a smaller series. ALL events covered by Nascar are Nascar races. The main 3 are the most well known because they're the only ones nationally televised.
"Doesn't matter if it's a smaller series. ALL events covered by Nascar are Nascar races." That may be technically true, but it's irrelevant to the discussion given that the original comment was asserting that restrictor plates result in more deaths. NASCAR's top three divisions are the only ones to run on superspeedways.
We all learned that it was the car aerodynamics was the reason why the cars kept getting airbourne. In 1994 the Fooflaps practically elimated 80% of cars flipping. Now with the side plate on the rear window and trunk, it should take it to 85-90%.
@@spence7985 It was. And they are going to race 312 miles today like they always have at ISM. And next week they will race 400 miles like they always have at Homestead. Things change, welcome to sports. Welcome to technology. Can't be the 80s forever.
@@RippingItAllSportsCards u dont see nfl having 3 winners in a game. u dont see mlb having 3 winners in a game. and you sure as hell dont see nfl and mlb change how the champion is crowned 50 years into the sport. thats why their still alive and nascar is in the shitter
Earnhardt complained about the plates initially, but he would definitely change his tune later on, since he would win a lot of races on "restrictor plate" tracks for the rest of his career.
+nascarfanatic2425 Well considering the rule was made in 19 *88* and Sr. didn't win at Daytona until 19 *98* I'd say we have a clear cut case of "Thanks Captian Fucking Obvious", how would we know these things without you pointing them out.
+brtshstel Just because he won doesn't mean anything. He never liked restrictor plate racing. Instead of restrictor plates, they should have left the horse power alone and changed aerodynamics so they didn't get as much downforce. With the horsepower, they could still pass (which was the biggest complaint), but without the downforce, they would never be able to reach the 200+ mile-per-hour speeds, which was the whole point.
@@tashawegmueller1866 No, the moron wouldn't change his lap belt like Mr. Simpson told him to do. He was told that it was going to tear and the arrogant Dale Sr. didn't listen and died because of it. A HANS would not have mattered.
NASCAR still uses restrictor plates for one reason & one reason only. Insurance purposes. As Petty said in this video “it looks good on paper.” If speed was truly an issue then a series such as Indy Cars would greatly be affected in the speed category of things as well (since they run well over 210mph on oval tracks). It’s a way to keep their costs down.
3500 lb machine vs something that is almost half that weight and when it goes airborne, you can picture the rest. I don't like plate racing anymore than the next person but the last thing you want is something going over the fence and killing people.
Your exactly right. The cost of liability insurance for nascar and the tracks was skyrocketing...newr policies had riders in them that increased the premiums if qualifying speeds exceeded certain speeds. Thats why the original goal was to be under 200mph
Should've just gone with a smaller small block engine and smaller carburetor. Would've been a whole lot better and still get the slingshots and keep cars spaced out.
While it create a number of new problems... Taking it off now isnt an option either... Rusty wallace did a tire test for goodyear in either 03 or 04... And on an open track at talledega they removed the plate... Unoficial times measured laps at around 238 mile per hour average... This test ended after 4 laps at speed... Rusty came in feeling a vibration... The vibration was the right front peeled to the cords in 4 laps....
Ernie Elliott is what caused restrictor plate racing,his engine that brother Bill qualified at 212 mph at Talladega is why they came up with the plates in my opinion.
This was a scape goat. The real reason is because of what Bill Elliott was doing to the field back then. Look AL football had the scholarships limit, the Yankees got the salary cap, and Bill Elliott got the restrictor plate. Not in that order.
Its kind of weird how the replay of Petty's crash at Daytona was always split into two segments, even though there was a clear camera angle showing his car blowing over in the wind flying across the track and rolling against the catch fence as we know now. Did they deliberately cover that up back then to justify their changes as completely successful?
When the big plate was made mandatory you could supply your own gaskets. If you chamfered the 4 holes you picked up 20 hp on the dyno. I worked in NASCAR for over 15 years building engines. Always cheating going on we had nitrous for qualifying at Daytona. It sprayed through a pop to rivit on the fire wall. Another we had a hydraulic controlled rear spoiler for Daytona another year. Just tuned the “brake bias knob” and lay it down then turn it back so it’s normal after the run an passed tech. We sat on the pole for both of those. We used a radio to trigger the nitrous. Click it on when exiting the corner and off about 100 yards from the turn. We figured out the sweet spots during practice.
I sure miss Larry Nuber (he is narrating), he was a great voice for motorsports much in the same way the great Ken Squire, not playing any favorites but making all entries sound equally important.
Although initially and primarily designed for safety, the restrictor-plate is also one of the best competition enhancing inventions in NASCAR's history. For 4 out of the 36 official races in the Cup season, we fans get to see the closest, most competitive, pack draft racing there is, with up to 30 cars running within a second of the leader.
I know there are people like David Land for example who despise packed racing. He's made two videos on this. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dXoiVR3P3NA.html&t ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1spNGbpEZR4.html
Well if the current engine displacement limit is 358, why can't they just drop the CID limit to 250 or 200? And get rid of the restrictor plates. That will take care of the excess horsepower, and the cars won't be forced to draft all the time.
It took drivers a whole lap to get up to speed. It also closed the pack together. The restrictor plate was retired in 2019 in favor of the Tapered spacer. It did increase the speed slightly and improve throttle response. But had the same effect.
Would it have been a better choice if they ran a smaller 5 liter V8 for the superspeedways? Either run a 4" bore 3" stroke, or keep the 4.125 bore with 2.875 stroke? So many questions on this matter.
Could of just went to a two barrel carb because even though the firecracker 400 had an airborne crash if you could call it that the 390 cfm was a decent idea instead of the bs plate
@@almostfm Yes and I am glad it has. Parts are plentiful for nice V8s. Innovation used to come from F1 and Indy cars, now that they are both pretty much spec series innovation has slowed. Stock car racing rarely provided useful innovation even before Gerald's presidency.
I would certainly like to know the purpose of the small braided line @1:40 entering the front of the intake plenum, just under the new "plate." (Just the perfect place to shoot some nitrous ?)
Anyone notice that Nascar used a plate to slow the cars down when they had 100's of ways to do so. Chevrolet just happened (yeah right) to dominate with this plate for 30 years and when Ford finally started dominating with the plate......it went bye bye. Of course Ford also had to use a larger spoiler for a season or two during those years.
In 2016, the restrictor plate is a piece of junk. Since all the cars use a McLaren Engine Management System computer. The engine horsepower can be controlled through the PROM chip inside the sealed EMS, if the seal is broken, the tem's disqualified, plain and simple.
@@fredgarvinMP To get the races in on one tank of fuel, they'd be about 100 miles. And they do "turn right once in a while"-or were you totally oblivious to the fact that they do run a couple of road courses each year?
@PixieWrangler Cup runs Watkins Glen and Sonoma (whatever they're calling it now). I know the Xfinity series has three next year: Mid Ohio, The Glen, and Road American. Honestly, I'd love to see both the Cup and Xfinity series do at least four road courses.
@PixieWrangler Oddly, it's probably my _least_ favorite road course. Places like the Glen and Road America feel like it's a road going someplace. I've never gotten that feeling with Sonoma. It's not that I hate it-it's just not near the top of my list.
Wow, only what I know now what I didnt know then...its amazing to see that we (in 2019) still are in battle with the power of the engines and speeds and yet nascar still can't get it right! Once they implemented the restrictor plate rule they took the excitement away from the sling shot maneuver. Bobby Allison had a point...why didnt they just go to a more smaller carb then using a plate. You are still restricting the amount of air flow in smaller venturis therefore not as much power is produced. However, now we are in fuel injection mode but what they do now is more problematic making all these cars run too damn equal causing these massive car pile ups to show up at practically every race. I rather watch side by side racing at high speeds rather then waiting for 'the big' one to occur...
I like how the parts they're using are basically what I have on my little weekend beater mustang. These days, the pros are using parts we can't afford or don't have access to.
You have access to anything and everything they do actually. Sure it may cost a little more, but not out of regular person price range for performance parts.
It's weird, restrictor plates were made out of a necessity for safety. But in the long run, it ended up changing the nature of dangers that occur at Daytona and Talladega. Before restrictor plates, these races were all about speed, now it's basically cars racing in a pack, one bad move, and a quarter of the field's day are done. And it surely hasn't stopped cars from flinging into the catch fence.
I find it interesting that they didn't mention the incident that occurred during the 1987 Twin 125 qualifier, where Phil Barkdoll's car got sideways going into the tri-oval, lifted up into the air, and started rolling until the rear of the car plowed into the fence. That situation garnered a fair amount of interest in slowing the cars down also.
Yes, it did; in fact, this was one of the main reasons (Bobby Allison's crash later that year at Talladega being the primary reason) why NASCAR re-introduced the restrictor plate for all races at Daytona and Talladega starting the following year to keep cars from sailing into the catch fence. Unfortunately, since Bobby Allison's crash in '87, there have been three other crashes, one at Daytona in 1988 involving Richard Petty (even though he rocketed against the fence and didn't damage anything or hurt anyone, thank goodness) and twice at Talladega (Neil Bonnett in 1993 and Carl Edwards in 2009), where drivers were hit or spun and sent into the catch fencing.
There was also the 2012 Craftsman Truck race when Joey Coulter was turned in the tri-oval and the rear of the truck grazed the fence. And the 2013 Daytona Nationwide event with Kyle Larson, which subsequently forced the banning of two-car-tandems in the lower series (Even if that wasn't the cause).
Falling Pictures Productions I recall Kyle Larson's crash two years ago, and if memory serves me right, two-car tandems were also banned in the Sprint Cup series later that year as well. Joey Coulter's crash I don't remember hearing anything about.
End of the 2012 Truck series' race. Not sure if the Cup series got the two can tandem ban, or if the cars at that point were no longer able to run in tandems.
They should have focused more on aerodynamics than restricting the engines. It doesnt matter how much you slow the cars down if driving in reverse creates lift and sends the car flying.
30 Years later there still getting into the Catchfence with the restrictor plate but get ready for the 2019 rules package. Only the Daytona 500 next year will use a restrictor plate and the other 3 races at Daytona and Talladega no restrictor plate there downsizing the horsepower to 500. O yeah I miss that 80's music from when I was a kid the cars and drivers too.
Also in the 80's most cars speedometer's only went to 85mph. I never really understood it because you could be going 120mph and it only read 85mph or in the case of my old car go around back to 10mph.
Go back to 1:39....Kenny Schrader got caught in practice (too much faster than the field).How does a carb mount to an intake ? Four studs. IF hollow . . .they are air tubes down into / through intake. It was enough.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. said it himself, maybe not in this video, but......"Knock down the banking and force 'the drivers' to lift."(quoted it the best I could)
Why cant racers who are willing to risk their lives get to liven up the sport, without their cars being downtuned and it being blamed on safety? If you want safety, get better nets for the spectators
Ironically that side window, which helped broil drivers, helped cars take off due to less airflow into the cabin which directed more air under the car.
The power in any engine is in the heads like a big pump more air you can move the more power it will make...roush racing sells old sb2 cup engines after they are done with the season 13k and u can have one
The real reason Bobby Allison wrecked is because the engine crankshaft balancer completely sheared off the front snout of the crank sending shrapnel under the right rear tire and blew the tire out. Nascar put the plate on to reduce engine rpm and kill the big breathing 351 Cleveland because NOBODY was going to catch Ernie and Bill otherwise.
I don't know if this is realistic but I was on iracing there and the 2011 cup cars don't have plates on them anymore and they hit about 230 to 240 and I'd say it would be about that fast today if there wasn't any plates
