11/9/2022 0 Comments Nascar the big one![]() ![]() I was looking forward to crowning one of our dear readers as 2021 Predictions Champion - following in Aly Osman’s 2020 footsteps - but some of you whiffed quite badly. This year, for whatever reason, that wasn’t the case. Usually I’m one of the worst at predicting things. Somehow - improbably and inexplicably - I got four of the five questions correct this season. Yes, me! The dude who went 0-for-5 on the same preseason predictions post last season. As it turns out, your collective guesses to our five preseason questions this year were so far off that you let me defeat all of you. This isn’t the predictions review post I wanted to write, but you all left me no choice. Oh, and if you need to pass some time, has a photo gallery of "wildest Talladega wrecks." The "haunted" part? That goes back to several stories from the past involving Native Americans in the area. May the streak continue, and may NASCAR pick up some new fans. The last time a spring race at Talladega did not include a Big One of at least 10 cars was in 2011. They always do at Talladega, and they still will. The Fox promo includes a lot of fast cars, a couple of clips of smoky wrecks from the old days and winners celebrating in Victory Lane. ![]() ![]() In an era when holding viewers of any telecast is seen to be positive, any gain is regarded as a victory. The numbers on Fox’s NASCAR telecasts so far this year are virtually the same as they were a year ago, suggesting that the nosedive has leveled off. But the numbers for the 2015 spring race were a 4.4 rating and 6.9 million viewers, meaning the race lost 31% of viewers and 35% of rating in three years. The 2016 spring race on Fox at Talladega, which included wrecks of 21 and 12 cars, had a lower rating than the race in 2017. The 2018 numbers represented a 19% one-year drop in rating and audience. The rating for the 2017 spring race there was a 3.53, with 5.897 million viewers. The TV rating for last year’s spring race at Talladega was a 2.85, with 4.746 million viewers. Sometimes, last-lap sprints lead to Big Ones.įox needs to go for it. A Big One is almost as good as a last-lap sprint to the checkered flag. They are just so unnatural, and Fox figures it might be worth tuning in for three hours just to watch one - then see every conceivable replay of the big wreck. Not to mention the fact they can still get hurt.īut a Big One is still quite a sight, because these big stock cars look like little Matchbox cars in a tumble dryer, with parts flying all over the track through clouds of gray tire smoke. If you can avoid trouble, they say, you can win - but just try to avoid trouble, because you really can't. The old-timers would rather see the cars race side by side, not on fire or wadded up into scrap metal.ĭrivers have looked over the years at races at Talladega and Daytona as crapshoots. NASCAR’s true-blue fans insist they don’t like Big Ones, much like “real” hockey fans don’t like fights. So it is mathematically likely there will be at least one Big One on Sunday. There were three races that had two Big Ones, and only six races with no Big Ones. In the previous 20 Cup races over 10 years at Talladega, there were 17 wrecks involving at least 10 cars. Racing is much safer than it used to be, so Fox can sell that sizzle. Fox won’t promise a car race gone haywire, but it is pointing out that a pileup could be around the corner. So there will still be potential for mayhem, and Fox does not want potential viewers to think that this race will be another three-hour parade. There still will be packs of very fast cars on a big ol' trioval. “Tapered spacers” replace the restrictor plates to accomplish generally the same thing. This will be the first Cup race in 31 years at Talladega or Daytona without mandated restrictor plates, intended to trim horsepower and keep the cars from flying into the seats. ![]()
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