(Photo by Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)
The restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega have always produced some exciting finishes, but they have a propensity to mangle cars and ruffle feathers. Here are some of the reasons why.
First, the horsepower-sapping plates tend to even out the field, and even the best driver out there needs drafting help to win. With the cars packed together like sardines, the slightest twitch can send the cars into each other with disastrous results.
Add to this the fact that these four races are held as very important races to win, with big crowds, big paychecks, and big trophies.
And more often than not, big wrecks and big headaches.
In the final laps, drivers often become more daring and take chances to gain position. This leads to the ubiquitous "big one" and typically involves a dozen or more cars.
The "big one" usually takes out a number of contenders for the race win, guilty of little more than being in the wrong place at the right time.
The relative lack of throttle response in plated engines also leads to another facet of plate racing, and that is bump drafting.
Bump drafting involves a car behind another getting a run and pushing their car into the car ahead, giving them a burst of speed and the chance to gain positions faster than usual.
If this is done when the two cars are not lined up properly, or going into a turn, it often results in a tangled mess of sheet metal, smoke, and dashed hopes for the evening.
Another problem with plate racing is the car in front blocking one or more cars behind that have a run and are a threat to overtake them.
In the past, blocking was not as common as it is today, but recently it has become de rigeur, leading to a sizable share of wrecked racecars.
NASCAR has cautioned drivers at the pre-race drivers' meeting not to do it, but the pattern of blocking drivers continues. What constitues a block and how NASCAR could deal with it better would be a difficult task to overcome.
Blocking is a part of these races and probably always will be.
The driver leading on the final hundred yards to the checkered flag in the last two plate races has blocked a run and been wrecked, ruining what would have been a top five finish.
Saturday night at the Coke Zero 400, it was Kyle Busch's turn to try blocking.
Busch was finally leading the race coming out of turn 4 into the tri-oval.
Tony Stewart got a run on him and bumped him slightly, then pulled to the outside to make the pass. At that point, Busch tried to slip in ahead of Stewart from the inside and block him but Stewart already had the line.
Stewart didn't budge and Kyle went sailing into the wall as Stewart crossed the finish line as the winner.
Plain and simple, blocking on the last lap dosen't work very well.
The driver ahead has to have an open line, and then it turns into a game of shuck and jive with the car behind at nearly 190 miles an hour.
Nobody's reflexes are that good. Just ask Carl Edwards, and now Kyle Busch.
It seems they were expecting Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart to lift just a little and give them back the groove they were in and the race win.
So much for wishful thinking.
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