35 cars started the Xfinity race Saturday at Talladega Speedway. 7 crossed the finish line at the end of the race. The rest were caught up in massive, multi-car wrecks. In a similar fiasco, 38 cars started the Cup race on Sunday, and only 9 cars finished the race undamaged.
Formula 1 and Indycar have rules against "blocking," which is a maneuver of jumping in front of a car that is in the act of passing you in order to prevent them from doing so. They have that rule because the maneuver is extremely dangerous, and very often causes one or both cars to wreck at high speed. They do not enforce the rule quite as well as I believe they should, but at least there is a chance that a driver will be penalized if he/she is not sufficiently subtle in the way it is done.
NASCAR, on the other hand, while eliminating practice sessions prior to the race to save money, not only allows blocking (idiotically referred to by the announcers as "managing the lanes") but actually encourages it, despite the fact that it causes millions of dollars in damage to and destruction of the cars, and that it puts the drivers at risk of injury and death.
Somebody please explain to me how this is not sheer stupidity.
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