'The Big One' always looms

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By Jenna Fryer ASSOCIATED PRESS

TALLADEGA, Ala. | Michael Waltrip pulled up to the back of Jimmie Johnson's car, settled in on his bumper and shoved him all the way around Talladega Superspeedway as the drivers worked on a strategy for NASCAR's fastest race track.

"We got hooked up and started flying," Johnson said.

But NASCAR doesn't want to see such aggressive drafting anymore. When Waltrip didn't heed a warning to back off a bit, he was yanked out of the final practice session leading into Sunday's race.

It was NASCAR's way of sending a message to the drivers: They can police themselves - or NASCAR will do it for them.

It's all part of a concerted effort to avoid a repeat of the spectacular last-lap accidents that marred the past two restrictor plate races this season. Carl Edwards went airborne into the Talladega safety fence on the final lap of April's race, and Kyle Busch sailed hard into an outside wall at Daytona in July.

In Edwards' accident, the fence bowed but held, and flying debris injured seven fans. After crossing the finish line on foot, Edwards issued a dire warning about the racing conditions.

"We'll race like this until we kill somebody," Edwards said. "Then [NASCAR] will change it."

NASCAR listened, and precautions have been taken headed into Sunday's race. Track operator International Speedway Corp. has raised the fencing to 22 feet from 14 feet at the recommendation of an outside engineering firm, and NASCAR reduced the size of the holes in the restrictor plates, which are used to throttle back the horsepower at the two biggest tracks on the circuit.

The smaller holes are intended to cut anywhere from 12 to 15 horsepower and slow the cars just a tick.

Whether that's enough to eliminate "The Big One" - the massive accidents that these races are generally remembered for - remains to be seen. But drivers seemed skeptical and worried the new plates are actually going to create more mayhem than usual.

"I don't want to go flipping across the finish line," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., a five-time Talladega winner. "The measures of raising the fences are good, but cars go through them fences, parts go through them. And it seems like the smaller the plate gets, the more we wreck, in my opinion.

"The smaller you make the plate, the more on top of each other we race and the more we're going to wreck. Every time that plate gets smaller, it gets more dangerous."

That's the predicament NASCAR finds itself in as the series heads into what is traditionally one of the most exciting races of the year. The action is intense for the entire 500 miles as cars jockey for position at speeds of almost 200 mph.

Because of the restricted horsepower, the traffic is typically one massive pack of cars running door-to-door and bumper-to-bumper in three- and four-wide lanes. Drivers hook onto each other's bumpers to draft their way around the speedway, and one small wiggle can trigger a wicked wreck.

NASCAR thinks the drivers are capable of preventing the multicar accidents - if they'd just back off and not be so aggressive. But even after warning drivers before Friday practice that they weren't going to allow bump-drafting, almost everyone did it during two lively sessions.

"It evolves because the drivers continue to push what the car is capable of and what the drivers are capable of," six-time Talladega winner Jeff Gordon said. "I thought there were no-bump zones or something like that, but the reason why that's happening is because NASCAR is allowing the cars to push one another through the corners.

"Until they crack down on that, you're going to see it come down to two guys locking up together and pushing one another and then trying to figure out how to decide it among themselves."