Imagine this, forty-three cars running one hundred and ninety miles per hour around an asphalt track, three and four cars wide, covering a span of about five hundred feet. One mistake by only one of these forty-three drivers and half the field could be gone due to a wreck. The reason for this type of racing is because NASCAR, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, mandates the teams to have special aerodynamic rules and restrictor plates to slow the cars down on the super speedway tracks such as Daytona and Talladega. CNN Sports Illustrated said that, “The plates slowed speeds, but now the cars are bunched in large groups, racing two and three wide” (CNN1). They go on to say that, “It makes for an exciting race, but some drivers feel it puts them in greater danger” (CNN 1). The easiest explanation of a restrictor plate is best given by Kevin Bonsor and Karim Nice from Marshall Brain’s How Stuff Works.com.

A restrictor plate is a square aluminum plate that has four holes drilled into it. Hole size is determined by NASCAR and varies between 0.875 inches and 1 inch (2.2 to 2.5 cm). Restrictor plates are placed between the carburetor and the intake manifold to reduc

Bonsor, Kevin, Karim Nice. “How NASCAR Safety Works.” Marshall Brain’s How

This blocking may have been around a while but was never used often in a race due to the fact that if a racer could pass the car in front of him, then he was obviously faster than that vehicle. The new aerodynamics and restrictor plate allow this to not necessarily be true. A car in front of several others is breaking the air; the cars behind it are riding in a zone where there is little wind resistance. Those cars in essence are pushing the lead car faster, while picking up speed themselves the entire time. This was why several cars

Smith, Marty. “Drivers Dissatisfied with Restrictor-Plate Racing.” NASCAR.com

It’s been part of the sport,” he said. “If it gets to the point where it’s counterproductive to the racing, then we’ll have to react to it. Blocking is as old as Daytona International Speedway. But if it’s coming to a point that it seems to be detrimental, then we’ll have to address it. (1)

Here again it is easy to see that NASCAR has good intentions to begin with. They mandated restrictor plates to slow cars down to prevent injury and or deaths. Now the question is, Is NASCAR really helping or hurting the drivers? I think the answer is clear from all the evidence, even though NASCAR originally had good intentions, NASCAR is endangering drivers by making teams run the restrictor plate. It has led to big wrecks, which lead to hurt drivers, and some very expensive damaged machines.

Some topics in this essay:
Sterling Marlin, Bill Elliot, International Speedway, Auto Week, Stuff Workscom, Bonkowski ESPN, Plates Imagine, Sports Illustrated, Ward Burton, Auto Racing, 2 2002, restrictor plate, restrictor plates, “1” 2, “1” 2 2002, slow cars, auto week, auto week magazine, allows car, speed magazine, week magazine, karim nice, cnn sports illustrated, restrictor plates slow, marshall brain’s stuff,