hearing that NASCAR officials will announce Saturday that they will run 1-inch carburetor restrictor plates at next weekend’s Duralube 300 Winston Cup race at the New Hampshire. The restrictor plates will cut approximately 250-300 horsepower from the engines, in turn slowing speeds down by 15-20 mph UPDATE: NASCAR has decided to use restrictor-plates on Winston Cup cars during next weekend’s Dura Lube 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway, several sources confirmed Friday. Restrictor plates have been used since 1988 to slow down Cup and BGN cars at Daytona and Talladega. As a result, pole-winning speeds at the two tracks dropped from the 210-mph range to the 195-mph(more like 185 now) range. But Daytona and Talladega are high-banked tracks, while Loudon is nearly flat(CNN/SI and That’s Racin’) UPDATE 2: Although NASCAR officials deny that any decision has been made on the matter, word throughout the Richmond garage Friday was that the matter is a go, and some teams say they already have gone to work on the engines for next week(SpeedVision)(9-8-2000) UPDATE 3: NASCAR is expected to announce today that Winston Cup cars will use restrictor plates when they race next weekend at New Hampshire. Several drivers said NASCAR officials told them that various “soft wall” barriers were tested at the New Hampshire track this week, but that the results were unsatisfactory. Drivers said they were told the problems included debris from foam blocks flying into the grandstands or back across the track in these tests. As news of the change spread Friday morning, teams began scrambling to get ready for restrictor plates at a track where they’ve never used them before. None of the teams will be allowed to test at New Hampshire – testing is banned at a track for the seven days preceding a race there – so calls were being placed to other tracks to arrange for testing time early next week. Helton said it is possible next weekend’s schedule at New Hampshire will be altered to allow more practice time.(That’s Racin’) UPDATE 4: NASCAR officials announced additional safety-related measures for use at the Sept. 16 Busch North Series, NASCAR Touring event and the Sept. 17 NASCAR Winston Cup Series event at NHIS. Teams in all will be required to use one-inch restrictor plates for practice, qualifying and the races. And all will take pre-practice laps behind the pace car to ensure proper brake temperature prior to full-speed practice runs. Teams can expect a reduction of approximately 10 mph at top speed.(in part from NASCAR Online), No idea if they will run more then one qualifying lap (as Daytona and Talladega do), more articles on the NHIS plate at my Story/Article Link Page(9-9-2000) UPDATE 5: NASCAR Discusses Plate Issue by Ben Blake of SpeedVision; and What’s being said about safety in the garage area by David Poole of That’s Racin'(9-10-2000)
