NASCAR Mandates Smaller Plates

NASCAR issued smaller restrictor plates during a drivers-only meeting following second-round qualifying on Saturday. The following are comments from the garage area after the second practice session with new 15/16-inch restrictor plates.

DALE EARNHARDT (No. 3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Monte Carlo) "I reckon we're fine. I don't like the disadvantage it changes for one team more than another. I don't know who it favors. They made the change. That's what it's all about. It's not going to change the drivers going four wide. That's what they were talking about in the meeting. They were trying to get the catch up time and the draft up time changed, but it's Talladega. You've got to use your head. You're got to race the draft and race the race track. We're going to be fine. It's not going to be any big deal. It's not going to be any different than it ever was. Talladega has been here a long time, and we've been racing here a long time. I liked it without restrictor plates. We'd had wrecks without restrictor plates and we've had wrecks with it. I don't see no difference. It's their decision. I've got no comment really. We're going to race what they give us. We can't do anything about it. I think they did that (take race out of drivers' hands) when they put the restrictor plates on years ago. They're past that point."

JEFF GORDON (No. 24 DuPont Automotive Finishes Monte Carlo) "I didn't get to really feel what it was like the first time. I'm not really sure. I thought it was an improvement. It slowed the cars down a little bit. It wasn't quite as easy to pass, but I thought the close up rate was a little less, which was good. You can still pass and close up. The aero package we have is what's doing a lot of that.

"I was driving down the front straightaway (in first practice) and two guys were in front of me. I went to go to the inside of them and there were a whole lot of pylons lined up. They're not normally there, but they were there when you're qualifying for first round and second round. I forgot they were there and blasted every one of them.

"Something with the shock, I had a problem with the shock (in second practice). It came loose and cut the left-front tire. (Going to a backup car for Sunday's race and starting from the rear of the pack.) The backup car is good (won race here in April). The biggest problem is not the car but starting in the back. It'll be plenty fast enough to run up front. The problem is I'm starting so far in the back. I wanted to qualify up front and I did it. Unfortunately we're not going to be starting there.

"I don't think the idea where just one car could do it. I think one car with enough momentum could do it. I think things are different in the year 2000 than back when they were slingshotting with one car. Everybody is so much closer in competition and everyone has got a good package. Horsepower is about the same. Aero is about the same. It keeps us all closely packed together. We don't need something when we just slingshot past a guy.

"The little bit I got to run this morning, it was pretty quick. I was in a four-car draft and I could gain on them extremely fast. We didn't really know anything about it (changing plate size) being an option. Everybody has got a different opinion and mixed emotions. What was really neat is that we were all able to just sit in one room and talk about it and give our ideas on the plate and aero package and everything. The bottom line is it comes down to the drivers respecting the speeds and dangers that are out there and understanding we need to go out there and run a race and pass if we can pass..

"If somebody is going to pass you don't run them down in the grass to keep them from passing you on lap 100. If you're going to do it, OK, maybe on lap 187, but we don't need to be doing that stuff all day long. There's some common respect that can go among the drivers and that's one thing that everybody agreed on.

"We are in control of the gas pedal and brake pedal. If you're closing up on them fast enough then what you need to do is get off the gas and get on the brake to keep from hitting the guy. None of us need to hit the guy in front of us. I think what some of the thoughts were with what we had on there this morning was because it was a fast closing rate and if you do check up and get on the brakes to keep from hitting the guy in front of you, what about the guy behind you and the guy behind him? It's the domino effect that I think worried us as much as anything.

"I might be using the brakes more than I ever have at Talladega. A lot of times you use the brake more than you lift. You stay on the floor with the gas pedal and use the brake to slow you down. Sometimes you don't need to slow down as much as lifting does. If you've got to slow down a lot, then you lift. If you've got to slow down a little bit, some guys will maybe ease off the gas and some guys will ride the brake."

JOE NEMECHEK (No. 33 Oakwood Homes Chevrolet Monte Carlo) "I think the Chevy cars got hurt worse by changing the restrictor plates than the Fords. That's just all part of it. We're starting on the pole. We accomplished one goal. We want to win the race. I think our chances might be a little slimmer. We're going to think all night and come up with the best combination and the best gear selection to have a car that's going to draft well.

"We're going to put in our race motor. It's the one we were going to race anyway. It's a little different combination than we were practicing with, but it was still built under the one-inch restrictor-plate rules. There's not a whole bunch you can do here.

"This morning it (closing rate) was pretty fast. It may have been 10 mph. With the new plate, overall speed slowed down and the closing rate is now probably 8 mph. When you're catching somebody, if you don't want to make it big, you'd better be stepping on the brake pedal to keep from hitting them too hard.

"It probably slowed the cars down two or three mph, and that's about what it slowed down the rate of close. It's not the power. If you gave us inch and a quarter plates, we're going to run faster. It's what they've done to the cars to make them bigger and make the air more dirty. It's like the trucks.. With those trucks, if you're back half a straightaway you can catch up in one lap. The dirtier you make the cars, the easier it is for somebody to suck up.. You think you have a lot more power than you do. I don't know what the fix is.

"I should say a lot of it (throttle response) is gone. Throttle response is definitely less because of the smaller plate. We're going to go slower, but the cars are still going to make dirty air. As far as on the gas like you were this morning, really able to close up to somebody, the acceleration rate is gone from what it was this morning. It's still going to be hairy. We didn't race with a one-inch plate, so it's hard to compare."

"I think it's probably going to stay about the same. You're still going to have a big group of cars only because when the air is dirty, the slower cars are going to be able to keep up. One thing it did do with making the cars more draggy and giving them more power, I think the 43rd fastest car here would be able to stay in the lead pack. That's one thing they have done, group the field closer together. It's definitely going to be exciting for the fans.

"We're here to go as fast as we can all the time. There's no questions. Why run slow? I had no idea this (smaller plates) might happen. Just like the trucks in Daytona, the guy who was lagging back a quarter straightaway could suck up to the pack in front of 'em and run 200 mph catching them. Once he got to them, he'd run 192 or 190 or whatever. You're just able to close the gap up when you're behind. That's what they've done. I heard a rumor when I was on the way to the meeting, and I thought 'this is going to be big.' We've dedicated the last couple months or three months to one-inch restrictor plates. We didn't get invited to a test down in Daytona when they had all the different manufacturers down there. I think that was wrong. If they're going to have a test. They need to invite everybody. We had to spend one of our own tests to come here and get ready for this race. Other guys didn't come because they already had experience with it.

"There will be some big wrecks tomorrow. There's always big wrecks. We've just got to do the best job as drivers to try and not make that happen.

"We learned something in Happy Hour, but I think you'll see everybody change gears. When you put smaller holes in those plates less air goes through it and the motor won't turn as many rpm's. Everybody is fighting it. You've got to turn the motor less rpm's.

"The closing rate is not bad. NASCAR is trying to make it more appealing for the fans. You've got to be able to pass. In some races we've been stuck and you can't do anything. It's not going to be that way tomorrow. I think it's going to be a good race.

"Where do you need to be on the last lap? Tomorrow, I'd rather be out front on the last lap. This morning if you'd asked me that, I'd say, 'no, I don't want to be out front. I'd rather be second.' The guy who is out front would have got hung out, but if you can time it just right where you can get ahead just enough, I don't think they're going to be able to pass you."

FRANK STODDARD, CREW CHIEF -99- CITGO SUPERGARD Taurus - "It's not a big deal at all. I applaud NASCAR. NASCAR is trying to tweak some things and try to make this sport better for all these drivers and all these competitors and all these crew members in the garage. I applaud them for making a decision based on what they saw on the race track, and that was cars that was just going extremely too fast catching a pack, to where they were just going to be coming through the pack like a loose cannon. And, so they just needed to step in and slow that process down a little bit. People are upset about it because it's a change, and it's a change here at the race track, I mean, I'm not upset about it because I think in the good interest of safety that it is something that needed to be done. And, when you really step back and look at things at a perspective of safety and our hearts today are hung low for the Roper family, what happened in Texas. You know, that's some of thing that I think this sport's about is continuing to try to make the cars as safe and the races as safe-and yet, also, as good as possible, and having said that, the reason that we need to make them safe is for the people that come here and they cheer for Tony Roper and for Kenny Irwin and Adam Petty and the guys that drive these cars as brilliantly as they do is, that's who they come to cheer for. And we want to make sure that they can come back each week and cheer for that driver. And, I think the fans want us to do what's important to make the sport competitive and yet also safe, and that's what NASCAR's trying to do here today."

WERE YOU SURPRISED WHEN YOU SAW THE SPEEDS FROM THIS MORNING'S PRACTICE THAT THEY WERE AS HIGH AS THEY WERE? "Extremely surprised. Extremely surprised. As soon as I saw that I was like, oh, boy, we've dome something here. We've got way too much of a plate. Because I was afraid that when a pack got out there, cars were going to be able to run up and catch them, but what happens is when they have that amount of speed, they have no place to go but just charge through the field. People just aren't expecting them to come that fast. And then once they get into the pack, it's not like the speed you have catching the pack is going to allow you to just pull out and pass somebody once you get into the pack. But as you catch the pack and as you get to the first 10 or 15 cars, it's gonna allow you to go through and cause chaos, and that's not going to be a good thing."

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS BEFORE THE RACE THE RESTRICTOR PLATE SIZE IS CHANGED. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO THE CAR? "No big deal. You may have to re-gear the car a little bit. We're looking at our gear ratio and stuff, but the motors and stuff, a sixteenth on the plate, for anybody to say that they're gonna have to change their motors and do this or that-we're all sitting here in the same boat, we're all sitting here with our motors in our cars. They went out and ran Happy Hour, didn't they? They took that carburetor off and they slipped that plate on there, and we'll be fine. I mean, I'm not the motor builder, but I'm sure if Jack took it back he'd like to tweak on things here or there, but you're talking about just so silly of things that shouldn't even be discussed, we should be thinking about the safety of making this sport as good as we can."

DARRELL WALTRIP -66- Route 66/Big Kmart Taurus - IS TODAY'S CHANGE FOR THE BETTER? "Change isn't always for the better. And it just seems like, the problem they have here is they're constantly making changes. You know, you can never get anything working. The engine builders are fooling with a different size restrictor plate every time they turn around. The aero package on the car is so radical that nobody knows really what it's gonna do until you get there amongst all the other cars. You know, we gotta cut all this stuff out. We gotta get back to some basic package here, where guys can race pretty good and be safe. Safety's the issue. The cars this morning were gonna run over 200 miles an hour and that's not a good idea here at Talladega when we run on top of each other the way we do. I don't know what they're gonna do, but I'm glad I don't have to make that decision. I just hope I get through tomorrow alright, and then I'll be able to watch it next year."

IN ALL YOUR YEARS OF RACING, HAD YOU EVER SEEN A CHANGE THIS CLOSE TO THE RACE BEFORE? "Listen, they got the cars so out of whack right now, they don't know what to do. They're just, you know, let's change something, maybe that'll be better. It's called trial and error, and this ain't a good place to be doing that kind of stuff."

DOUG YATES, Robert Yates Racing - IS THE CHANGE A BIG DEAL? "In my opinion, it is a big deal. Anytime you prepare for a race for a one-inch plate and they put a fifteen-sixteenths plate on, it's about a 50 horsepower change. Basically, your valve train's not optimized. If your valve train's optimized for a one-inch plate, it's not optimized for a fifteen-sixteenths. It's a different air flow. More air flow for a one-inch plate than a fifteen-sixteenths. So, some guys here in the garage, it's gonna come to them and will make their cars run better, their engine combination run better, and some of the guys who are running good are not going to perform as well. Every small incremental change on a restrictor plate is a very big change."

WAS THERE ENOUGH TIME TO MAKE THE CHANGES YOU NEEDED TO MAKE? "Well, you really need to go home and order some cam shafts, and we can't do that overnight. So, we've got some guys back at the shop, just like other teams here, and they're going to get on the dyno and try some things today and see if we can't tune in a couple horsepower here or there. But, with the drag they put in the cars, the engine is not as significant now, it doesn't seem, because everybody out here can hold the draft, and so now, it seems to be more about who you're drafting with, and the position you're in at the end of the race, so, hopefully, everybody can get through the race and be at the right place at the right time and capitalize."

WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE SPEEDS THIS MORNING? "Yeah. Those speeds were done when people were catching the draft. That's still pretty fast. I wasn't surprised that NASCAR was nervous about the speeds, I wasn't surprised that they wanted to change something. It's gonna be as good a show at 190 versus 200, but it's just a little bit of pain for the engine guys who spent a lot of time working on one-size plate. But, I think it'll be a good race tomorrow."

DALE JARRETT -88- Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Taurus - "I'm not sure that's something I can answer right now. I think I'm just gonna have to get in the race and see exactly what's going on and what my car's gonna do versus what other cars are doing. I still would right now say that, if I had to guess, I'd still want to be in front. I can control things a little better there."