DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR president Mike Helton officially warned drivers on Thursday before the 150-mile qualifying races that bump drafting will not be tolerated.
"This is not as much about bump drafting as it is about aggressive driving,'' Helton said during the drivers' meeting at Daytona International Speedway. "It could be side-to-side.''
Helton said the problem has become magnified because a lot of drivers aren't experienced in the maneuver in which the front end of one car bumps the back end of the other to give both an aerodynamic push.
Done incorrectly or too aggressively, the driver in front often is spun out.
"So what we're doing today is getting into that gray area that we don't get into, and you don't want us to get into,'' Helton said. "But we've reached a point where we need to. So this is it. This is the warning.''
Helton said ultimately the drivers are in control, and that NASCAR reluctantly stepped in.
"But if anything happens and we have to make a call, it's over with,'' he said. "Now we can argue when you come in after the race is over, but it's too bad. It is what it is.
"We didn't want to get into this and you didn't want us to get into it. But due to what is occurring on the racetrack, this is where we are at.''
Here is a better solution... how about just get rid of restrictor plates and let them race the way the sport was meant to be raced?
NASCAR is a aggressive sport always has been. A little history for you. CBS aired the first national televised race. It was the 1979 Daytona 500. Richard Petty took the checkered flag because Cale Yardborugh and Donnie Allison wrecked each other fighting for the lead on the last lap and then got into a fist fight in the Daytona infield. This is clearly aggressive behavior that NASCAR will not tolerate anymore.
How the hell is aggressive driving defined on a race track anyway??? If NASCAR keeps it up they will eventually have to determine who is at fault after each accident on the track. Perhaps the NASCAR police will write citations with fines and make the drivers exchange insurance cards.
Let Them Race!!!
NASCAR continues to try and turn the sport into a gentlemens sport. If they want a gentlemen's sport I say watch or play golf.
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