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Mixed response to bump-drafting
Daytona 500 notebook
Date published: 2/17/2006
By JIM McCONNELL DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. has said that the recent furor over "bump-drafting" was much ado about nothing. He saw nothing during yesterday's Gatorade Duel qualifying races to make him change that opinion. "I think it's best left in the driver's hands and the crew's hands on how they handle this issue," Earnhardt said after finishing third in the first race yesterday at Daytona International Speedway. "I don't think NASCAR can step in and make any improvements. They'll probably make the situation a whole lot worse for all of us anyway." The practice of "bump-drafting," in which a driver rams his front bumper into the rear bumper of the car ahead of him to gain momentum, had become commonplace at the superspeedways where horsepower-robbing restrictor plates make passing difficult. That changed after last Saturday's wild Budweiser Shootout, when Tony Stewart used his status as defending Nextel Cup champion to sound an alarm on the 190-mph slam dancing. "We're going to kill somebody," Stewart said at the time. "Somebody else is going to die at Daytona or Talladega with what we're doing right here." NASCAR responded quickly to Stewart's warning, announcing Tuesday that it would assign officials to monitor bumping in established "no zones" in the tri-oval on the main straightaway and at both ends of the 2.5-mile oval. NASCAR president Mike Helton also addressed the topic of aggressive driving during yesterday's pre-race drivers' meeting. The drivers covered a combined 300 miles mostly without incident yesterday--there were six cautions for a total of 21 laps--but opinion was divided over how much the increased attention had to do with that. "By having those no-bump zones or whatever we want to call them, I think we saw a heck of a lot less crashes, big crashes, than what we could have seen," Jeff Gordon said. "I think the racing was still good out there, but it was so much calmer." Added Carl Edwards: "All I know about those zones, I wasn't sure where they were." Fighting for positionNASCAR had already eliminated most of the suspense from yesterday's 150-mile qualifying races by locking up all but a handful of starting spots for the Daytona 500. For the few who had to try and race their way in, however, the competition was as intense as anything you'll see on Sunday afternoon.
Date published: 2/17/2006
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