Noah's Ark Drafting Has Run Its Course 

At the Daytona 500 it was novel and intriguing. In April, at Talladega, it proved problematic, but exciting. The two-car “Noah’s Ark” drafting’s return to Daytona may be the tipping point for the new plate racing technique. While the ending of the Coke Zero 400 was exciting and David Ragan scored a popular win, drivers (including Ragan) were almost unanimous in their dislike of this type of racing. And the tide, too, seems to be turning with fans, who normally are enthralled with plate racing. Comments on message boards and remarks made to me reflect, for the most part, a heavy dislike for the random nature of who leads in these races. What’s wrong with that? Don’t we like seeing lots of drivers with chances to win?

Yes we do. Everyone likes to healthy competition. When this kind of tandem drafting started taking shape at Talladega in April 2010 (in a race won by Kevin Harvick), there were 88 lead changes and 29 different leaders. In that race, drivers still raced in a large pack, but the leaders often rose to the front and broke away from the pack by getting a tremendous push from just one other car. The same kind of racing occurred that October in Talladega, but was impossible on Daytona’s old pavement. With a new surface in February, drivers realized that they could improve their speed by several mph per lap by pairing up with one driver and getting or giving that tremendous push continuously. This took shape in the Daytona 500’s preliminary practices and the Bud Shootout. By the time of the big race a week later, teams had not only built enhanced ways to cool their engines (helping correct for the lack of airflow for a pushing car), but had also equipped their drivers with the ability to communicate with up to a dozen of their competitors on the race track. This was a necessity, as a driver had no competitive chance without a partner and the lead driver’s spotter would need to talk to the pushing vehicle, since the two were operating as one.

The “two as one” concept is nothing new at Daytona and Talladega. Teammates often decided to try and stick with each other in the big packs or even drop back behind backs and then work toward the front together. This kind of racing still produced random results, with big crashes always around the corner, but drivers still had the ability to slice and dice through the pack – they could jump from line to line and remain competitive, even if their drafting partner fell out of the race. When the Noah’s Ark drafting evolved into a track full of two-car pods, drivers’ fates were completely in the hands of their partners.

And this produced strange results – such as Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer squabbling at Talladega in April on a late restart about whether or not they should draft together or Kurt Busch spinning out two or three different partners at least during the race. It also has made the end of races absolutemadhouses, with no driver holding back and each pod making dicey moves and inevitably igniting huge crashes that ripped apart race-long partnerships and ended stranded partners’ chances to win race. Case in point: Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400.

Drivers held back during most of the race that saw a 105-lap green flag period at one point. When the action heated up, Jeff Gordon got spun out of line with just a few laps to go. This left pole-sitter Mark Martin, Gordon’s race-long dance partner, with no one to draft. Knowing he was a goner without a partner, the 2^nd oldest driver on the track sought out the 2^nd youngest, Joey Logano, who had just lost partner Kyle Busch, who had to pit after the Gordon spin. As they attempted to link up on that first green-white-checkered restart, Martin got turned around in those close quarters and about a third of the field wrecked. With many drivers left without partners after that, the next and final restart saw two separate wrecks on the race’s final lap. Ironically, Logano survived the melee with Martin and pushed Kasey Kahne, who had lost teammate Brian Vickers in the same crash, up to finish right behind winner Ragan and his mate Matt Kenseth.

Late race wrecks on restarts are nothing new. They are a thrilling part of the sport. But the sheer random draw of winners and drivers’ utter dependence on those they should be out-driving each pose a real problem when it comes to racing. Take notes from what one of NASCAR’s best plate racers, Dale Earnhardt Jr., told the media both before and after the Daytona race.

"I'd rather have control of my own destiny and be able to go out there and race and just do my own work and worry about my own self,” he said, when asked what he thought looking ahead to the Coke Zero 400. "It's really weird and kind of wrong on some levels to race that way and to think like you think. You take care of somebody and you feel this obligation to take care of them and then worry about having them take care of you and how that makes them feel. Been growing up all these years racin' for number one, lookin' out for number one. Doing my job. This is what I need to do."

After the Daytona race, which saw Earnhardt’s pushing partner Jimmie Johnson get called to the pits in the closing laps and the No. 88 car left with little chance to win, the normally chill Junior let loose and pled with the surrounding pool of reporters.

"It was just a foolish race. I don't know. I don't know what to say," he said after finishing 19^th and getting caught up in the last big crash before the finish line. "You guys need to get your own opinions and write what you all think about it. I think it is probably pretty ... close to mine....Y'all write what y'all think, man. Come on, y'all are good."

This writer has an opinion – this racing is interesting, but it defeats the purpose of out-running your competition. In fact, Noah’s Ark drafting does much more to undermine the push for a winner’s trophy than points racing (which is oft-criticized) does. NASCAR, however, did not create two-car drafts – drivers did. In fact, NASCAR opened up the restrictor plates on the racecars in hopes of breaking up the big packs. That worked...kind of. Drivers and teams learned how to take the full speed advantage of that and this is the mess with which plate races are left. NASCAR should not do a thing to correct for this racing, unless it can figure a way for drivers to run without restrictor plates, which is about as likely Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick drinking a two-straw margarita together.

Drivers will evolve as this form of racing has. My prediction is that drivers will soon figure out how to continuously draft in a large pack. We saw drivers try trying three and four-car packs in both Daytona races last weekend when they were tiptoeing, trying to find partners. Soon enough, as the Daytona and Talladega pavement wears, the packs will return and drivers like Earnhardt, who had no choice but to push Jimmie Johnson to a Talladega victory in April, will again get to look out for Number One and not have their fate decided so singularly by other competitors. Maybe then Daytona can open the backstretch seats during its summer classic.

Be sure and listen to Captain Herb Emory, Jason Durden, and me on the Allan Vigil Ford Lincoln Speedshop on Saturdays from 12-1 p.m.,  on AM-750 and NOW 95.5 FM News/Talk WSB. Feel free to comment on what you see and hear anytime on this blog. 
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