Time for a little “redneck” education. In the exciting world of Nascar, all the fans seem to be captivated by the super speedway restrictor plate races (one example of this is a race even someone that doesn’t watch Nascar has probably heard of is the Daytona 500). What is a super speedway you ask. Any track that’s 2+ miles and high banked which requires use of the brakes only when avoiding an accident. What is a restrictor plate you ask. It’s used to restrict the horsepower of engine (roughly 750 HP down to 430 HP). The reason it’s used, it is to reduce the overall speed on these big tracks. In 2004 a none restrictor plate car tested at speeds of 228 MPH on a super speedway. With the restrictor plate speeds are kept under 200 MPH. The downfall to this is cars tend to form one giant pack on super speedways. You’re thinking, well that sounds way more exciting than if the leader is way out there alone and there’s nothing exciting happening. Good point! The other major concept to this type of racing is drafting, which if you’ve seen Days of Thunder, Tom Cruise graciously explained the concept of drafting on Nicole Kidman’s leg with a couple of sugar packets. Basically, the car in front forms a pocket of air for the car behind it allowing the two cars to be faster because they’re working together against air. Bump drafting is another concept you have to understand. This is when the car behind, because of it’s extra speed and lack of air working against it, bumps the lead car to push him farther ahead. Good tactic on straight-a-ways but a bad idea in a turn. Okay, so how does “The Big One…” fit into this story. The Big One is the name coined for the accident that seems to occur at every one of these races that takes out 10, 15, or 20 cars in one accident (this is my reason for not being a huge fan of these races). So, now that you’re educated… Many know I race online in a league for fun. Well, I took a little break this winter and hopped back behind the wheel this week. First race of the season is ALWAYS the Daytona 500. I was skeptical that I’d have a good race but I have actually won this event in a previous season so I didn’t want to miss the first race. Well, I’d like to share with you what online racing is like, why you don’t bump draft in the corners and what the big one looks like in the sim racing world. This video is the same accident from two points of view. First view is the camera view. You’ll see the 2nd place car bumped the 1st place car in the turn. I run the 96 (Black and Red truck with a white number) and I’m in 3rd on the inside line. The second part of this video is my view when the accident happened (caution, the 2nd part of the video is much louder). Hope you enjoy… and no, I don’t have wings hidden some place on my truck.

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