Talladega: One Last Look In The Rear View Mirror

The buzz from what happened at Talladega is still going strong. The fire has yet to die out and people are still talking. But some of the ideas being thrown around to ensure that this doesn't happen again are nothing short of ridiculous.

With that being said, did I hear Jimmie Johnson correctly? Did the reigning three-time champ say the only solution for the racing at Talladega is to bulldoze the place and turn it into another Indy or Pocono?

Aren't we over reacting just a little too much?

Look, Talladega is a wide fast race track where white knuckle racing is the norm; but to say the only logical solution is to bulldoze the place into a parking lot is a slap in the face of a community and 40 years of rich racing history not limited just to NASCAR.

Now let's not discount what happened on the last lap when Keselowski and Edwards got together sending Edwards into the catch fence. It was one of the most horrific things the sport has seen since Bobby Allison in 1987. What makes it even more unnerving is how close the 99 actually came to going into the stands. Fortunately it didn't and fortunately no one was seriously hurt; but let's not throw the track out with the bath water.

Rick Humphrey and his staff see a potential problem and they will fix it. The beauty of racing, and sports for that matter, is that when a situation like this occurs it presents an opportunity to make things better.

The tragedy during the IRL race at Charlotte where spectators were killed by an out of control car was a wake-up call to track officials. They concluded that the fence needed to be taller in order to protect the fans and ensure that never happens again. They fixed it and haven't had a problem since.

So, how does NASCAR fix this problem? What is the solution?

In his weekly press conference Dale Earnhardt, Jr agreed with those who want a smaller plate and want the speeds to come down. "NASCAR is really wanting to see cars run around 190 mile-per-hour range. We are doing 10 more miles an hour being able to tag up and bumper to bumper like we are," Earnhardt said. "That's where the threshold is for cars getting airborne, is about the 195 mile-an-hour range. We have to think what we can do to get back under that threshold a little bit and not create this situation in the future."

A smaller plate would choke the speeds back down to the 180-185 range so in the event that two cars do hook up bumper to bumper the speeds won't creep up into the magical 200 mph zone therefore putting the drivers and the fans in danger.

Perhaps the most logical solution to this mess would be to police the amount of blocking that goes on during the course of a race. All but a couple of the wrecks during the Aaron's 499 were caused by blocking. Matt Kenseth's barrel roll during the Nationwide race on Saturday was caused by him blocking the 18 and then the 6.

Let's not let Carl Edwards slide either. The catalyst for his wreck was his attempt to block the run the 09 had on him. If he doesn't block Keselowski then we aren't even talking about the race at this point during the week.

You want this to stop; then reduce the size of the plate and police the blocking. You get that under control and you have a strong possibility that what happened on Sunday won't happen again.