"Everybody's handling is so good that they're running bumper to bumper out there," says Rusty Wallace, driver of the Miller Lite Ford. "The tires are so good that they're real hard and they're not giving up any speed at all."
That means drivers can push the limits longer. At most tracks, the preferred groove is to stick to the bottom of the track, right above the apron. Passing becomes more difficult. Drivers must take greater risks to gain a position. Also, running at the bottom means that if the driver has trouble, he must travel farther before hitting the retaining wall.
ARCA driver Frank Kimmel says speeds at most tracks keep getting faster. "I remember going to Charlotte for the first time and running a 32- or 33-second lap and ran among the fastest," he says. "Now, if you don't get in the 29s, you're not in the game."
Kimmel, like Wallace, also points to the tires and aerodynamic changes made in recent years to the race cars. "You can approach the edge and stay on it a lot longer than you could a few years ago."
And no longer are just a handful of cars on the lead lap. The level of competition has reached the point that a driver has no time to back off.
"The cars have gotten so specialized, especially in Winston Cup, that you can't give the guy even a 10th of a second a lap," Kimmel says. "You have to be on the best line every lap or they'll get away from you and eventually put you a lap down. Those guys are searching for the perfect lap every single lap."
The ResponseJust a few years ago, fans would have seen little but excitement in the huge crashes that commonly happen at Talladega and Daytona. Now that the consequences are obvious, many are stepping forward and saying they'll give up some close racing in exchange for keeping their heroes safe.
"Although it's fun to watch, it's going to cause a driver to be seriously injured or killed," says fan Riley Boren. "I am a devout Dale Earnhardt fan, and if there would have been changes sooner when the drivers complained the first time about how dangerous it was to run that close, maybe Dale would still be around."
Fan Butch Williams says he'll never forget the sick feeling he got inside when rescue squads removed Blaise Alexander from his wrecked car. "Just seeing the blue tarp being spread over everything to obscure the view, you knew then that something's bad. I hadn't seen that before in person, and I hope I never have to again."
Drivers have taken a much greater interest in safety, and have spoken out frequently on the subject. However, it wasn't until Earnhardt died that most made the issue their priority.
"Back earlier in my career I never considered safety," Wallace says. "I was watching an old video the other day and an in-car camera from my 27 car. It looked like I was sitting four miles up in the seat and my whole body was just flopping around. I had an open-face helmet, no head restraints."
Wallace says his approach to safety has been anything but a gradual evolution. "It was a hit in the head after Earnhardt got killed," he says. "When the other fellows lost their lives in Loudon (New Hampshire), we were saying, 'Man, we need to take care of the throttle to make sure it doesn't stick.' When Earnhardt died, it brought an entirely new perspective."
Jeff Burton, driver of the Citgo Ford, says he's amazed that some drivers, at any level, decline to wear a head-and-neck restraint.
"In all the fatalities we've had in stock car racing in the last 18 months, none of those people had a head-and-neck restraining device," Burton says. Although it will never be known if the device would have prevented any of the deaths, Burton says, "You have to do everything you can to give yourself the best chance possible."