Jeff Gordon: NASCAR rule changes to cause more wrecks in Talladega – NASCAR news
Jeff Gordon believes that the recent rule changes will not discourage the two-car tandem racing and will only make it more risky.
NASCAR announced recently that the size of the restrictor plates was being increased and pressure relief valve was adjusted to decrease the maximum temperature of the water in the engines. In addition to this, NASCAR issued a technical bulletin this week
that teams will no longer be allowed to grease the rear bumpers of the cars.
The rule change means that the cars which have more speed are likely to heat up more quickly if they are racing in tandem. The lack of grease on the rear bumpers will mean that the car being pushed is more like to be turned over by the car pushing it.
While these rules have been introduced to discourage the two-car tandem racing in the Talladega race, the change suggest that the cars will only swaps places more often than they did before.
Jeff Gordon believes that the rule changes only increase the chances of accidents in the race and makes the two-car drafting more dangerous.
“I know that a lot of people don't like us running nose to tail like that but it's far more dangerous doing more swaps,” said Gordon. “It causes far more chances to have crashes when you're swapping, especially at the end of that race where you are in the
middle of a pack and all of a sudden two cars just swap.”
Carl Edwards was slightly milder in his approach as he encouraged NASCAR rules and said that they will make racing more exciting but doubted whether it will stop the two-car drafting. Edwards said that the drivers will not stop using the method as it is
significantly faster and they will not care too much if the water temperature is blowing out.
Jeff Gordon also said that teams will devise ways to deal with the temperature limit, with moving the nose of the car further out being one of the options. However, that will lead to more chances of the car in the back overturning the car in the front. Therefore,
he expects an even more dangerous race in Talladega this time around.
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