NASCAR plans to crack down on aggressive driving and bump drafting beginning with Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway, particularly regarding two-car breakaways that have become commonplace with the new car. Track officials hope they got the attention of drivers when they parked #55-Michael Waltrip for pushing #48-Jimmie Johnson’s car through the corners during Friday’s second practice. “It at least sent a good point of conversation out there in the Motorhome 500 lot,” series director John Darby said after Saturday’s qualifying was rained out. The new car has presented a problem because two cars that match up well are able to pull away from the pack.(ESPN.com)(11-1-2009)
UPDATE: At the drivers meeting Sunday morning in Talladega, NASCAR President Mike Helton warned drivers that there would be no pushing or bump drafting allowed in the turns through the entire race, including the last lap. The penalty for a first offense will be a drive through; on the last lap it will be a time or position penalty. Any offenses beyond the first will be NASCAR’s discretion. See Helton’s quotes at Hampton Roads.(11-1-2009)
UPDATE: 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.” 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.(SceneDaily)(11-2-2009)
