> > I like to see races where a driver overtakes another driver and figures out how to pass him. The other driver has to figure out how to keep from being passed. If somebody wrecks, the other cars have a chance to miss them. Smart teams figure out how to make their cars faster than the other cars. But at Talladega, everybody has the same amount of power and they all travel at the same speed. The 35th place car is usually only about 2 seconds behind the first place car. What kind of a race is that?
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> I never understood that kind of race either. I don't get the point of giving all the drivers cars capable of *exactly* the same thing - as you've illustrated, that leads to races in which all of the cars are wont to be in the same place the whole time. Races are much more exciting - and, to my thinking, much less a matter of luck - if the drivers have a bit of freedom over their cars.

The problem is, then the race gets won by whoever spends the most money on their car. This way (theoretically) the best driver should win as all other factors are equal. Of course, for that to happen you need a track with lots of overtaking opportunities.

When they recently (well, several years ago) changed various Formula 1 tracks to make them safer, the opportunity for people to overtake dropped drastically, and now most races are won by whoever gets around the first corner first. Or sometimes pit stop strategies have an effect, but not often.

winter"Come on Button!"mute