When you see them like this, you know it’s going nowhere good. Fast. Let me start by saying that, thanks to the CoT and an aggressive driver safety program, Ryan Newman walked away from this wreck.

Today’s wreck at Talladega was the latest of a long line of them.  They’ve been wrecking like that since the track opened in 1969. At 2.66 miles, it is one of NASCAR’s two “super” speedways. In 1987 Bill Elliott put his Ford Thunderbird on the pole with an unfathomable speed of 212.809 mph — a record that still stands today. Why? Wrecks.

Specifically Bobby Allison’s wreck on the 22nd lap of that race. Blowing a tire, at 200 mph, Allison’s car spun backwards. Did I mention at 200 mph? Backwards? When the air got under the Buick’s back end, the car lifted above the retaining wall. The catch fence did its job and kept the car track side, Bobby walked away, but several fans were injured by flying debris, prompting NASCAR to implement restrictor plates.

Sound familar? Yeah, I posted a video of Carl Edward’s horrific wreck at Talladega this past April. Same shit, different day.

In September 2008 Popular Mechanics posted the Top 10 Nascar Crashes. That’s alittle misleading, because they show 12. But, hey, who’s counting? Six of those wrecks are Talladega and Daytona (at 2.65 miles, Nascar’s “other” Super Speedway).

And that’s just a handful of airborne wrecks. Talladega is known for the “Big One” and never fails to deliver. Here’s a partial list:

• 1973, with 60 cars in the field Ramo Scott’s blown engine triggers a 21-car crash
• 1984, Tommy Ellis sends Trevor Boys into a flip
• 1989, Larry Pearson’s car is just flat demolished
• 1991, Mark Martin dances on his nose
• 1993, May, Rusty Wallace barrel rolls across the finish line
• 1993, July 2-fer, Jimmy Horton over the wall, Neil Bonnet over Jimmy Hensley
• 1996, Jeff Gordon starts a wreck that ends up sending Ricky Craven into the catch fence
• 1996, Ernie Irvan gets into Sterling Marlin who sends Dale Earnhardt rolling
• 1998, Ward Burton bumps Earnhardt who gets into Bill Elliott
• 2006, Jimme Johnson and Brian Vickers set the Junior Nation on their ear

Sadly, that’s not the worst. Talladega has claimed five lives.

• 1973, Larry Smith, Winston Cup
• 1975, Tiny Lund, Winston Cup
• 1982, Gene Richards, ARCA
• 1987, Tracy Read, ARCA
• 1991, Chris Gehrke, ARCA

So what’s the problem? I don’t pretend to know. What I do know is that NASCAR has tried. After Allison’s 1987 wreck, NASCAR required restrictor plates to reduce horsepower and slow the cars down. The openings in the plates have been larger and smaller. NASCAR has mandated changes in spoiler sizes and angles, they’ve changed aerodynamic packages. in this race they forbid bump drafting in the corners. None of this seems to prevent the “big one.”

What we have now are cars bunched tightly together, often at less than a half-second from each other, traveling three and four wide, at roughly the same speed. There is no margin for error. There is no recourse for impatience, inexperience, or immaturity. There is no time to respond to mechanical failure. There is no getting out of the way, only plowing through and hoping for the best.

They say it’s all for the show. It’s what the fans want. Fans want death-defying acts, and have come to expect the drivers to just climb out, wave,  and walk away.

Well I’m a fan, and this is not what I like about the sport. I’m tired of watching cars go airborne and bounce on their roofs, I’m tired of seeing them roll down the backstretch, I’m tired of watching them flip through the infield grass. This is not bumping and banging. This is not “just racing.” This is heart-in-throat, breath-holding, pulse-racing terror. It is not entertaining.

So what’s the answer? Again, I don’t know. But it sure seems that the next logical choice for NASCAR is to fix the track. Reconfigure it more like Indianapolis. Shorten it. Change the banking. Anything. I know there’s more to it than that. I know there’s controversy in that.

“Changing the track is impossible,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said “There is no way to justify doing it under the current economic state of the sport, of the track it self, of the company that owns the track.”

Bullshit. Nothing is impossible. See the key word there? Economic. Too expensive?! It what terms? Here’s a thought. Take it off the circuit. It’s been done before, and life goes on.

Drivers have an option. They can boycott the track. Led by Richard Petty, they did just that in 1969. When they roll out in the first parade lap, pull up to the finish line, stop, cut the engines, climb out, and walk away.

I know. There’s too much at stake to do that, as much as they may like to. It’s that word again. Economic. And, another. Sponsors. Same difference. It’s dollars.

But, you know what? That’s just where fans speak the loudest. With our purchasing power and sponsor loyalty. Maybe we need to speak a language NASCAR, International Speedway Corporation, Aaron’s, and Amp Energy understand.