Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"No Plates: The Last Unrestricted Run"

Posted by nascarman on January 8, 2019

Viewed 8829 times Tweet Officially, the test was to help "improve radio communications at high speeds." That's why Rusty Wallace was asked to test at Talladega with no restrictor plate in 2004. A secret test in front of an empty track.



Looking to develop better communication systems for race cars, Racing Radios and Nextel approached NASCAR about running a special high-speed test run in the spring of 2004. Looking for much faster speeds than usual, NASCAR decided the easiest way to do this would be to bring a car to Talladega and run it without a restrictor plate.





Wallace's 2004 Car (Jonathan Ferrey/GettyImages)



NASCAR had used restrictor plates at superspeedways ever since Bobby Allison's high speed crash at Talladega in May 1987. Bill Elliott's pole speed for that race remains a NASCAR record: 212.809 mph. But how much faster could a car go in 2004?



In the 17 years sthat had passed since 1987, only eight drivers were still competing full-time who had experience with unrestricted engines. Of those drivers, Rusty Wallace accepted the offer to do the test.



"I've enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Racing Radios and I jumped at the opportunity to assist them with their 'Communication of the Future' program for NASCAR," Wallace said at the time. "We were invited to bring our Miller Lite Dodge superspeedway car down for the test to assure quality audio at high rates of speed. The NASCAR, Nextel and Racing Radios officials were all extremely pleased at the end of the day, so I'd say that we did a good job for them."



The test was unpublicized. On Tuesday, June 8th, Wallace was in California testing on the tight road course of Sonoma. He unofficially broke the track record, was fastest of the five cars that tested. Then without announcing their plans, Wallace and crew-chief Larry Carter flew to Talladega for their "radio test" on Wednesday, June 9th. They set out to help develop radio technology, but also satisfy a lot of curiosity. Just how fast could an unrestricted car run on a superspeedway?



Nextel Cup Series Director John Darby and official Buster Auton were at the track to supervise the runs. Timing lines were set up around the track to measure trap speeds.



"They were timing lap segments and straightaway speeds and Rusty's fastest lap had him running an average 221 mph in that segment and 228 mph at the end of the straightaway," Larry Carter said. "The overall lap time was a 44.27 second (216.309 mph), and that beat Elliott's old record by more than seven-tenths. It was some sight to see, I'll tell you that." Observers were struck by how different the roaring engine sounded than usual.



"One of the things that impressed me most was the sound of the engine screaming down the straightaways and into the turns," spotter Earl Barban said. "It's totally different than what we're accustomed to hearing with the plate motors."



Officially, Wallace's speed was only the third fastest lap around the Talladega track. Ironically, the record is held by another Roger Penske car. In August 1975, Mark Donohue ran a lap of 221.160 mph in a Penske-prepared Porsche 917-30. And Wallace's speed was just short of A.J. Foyt's IndyCar lap of 217.854 mph in August 1974.



"I certainly will remember for the rest of my life," Wallace said. "We'd all been wondering what it would feel like to run at Talladega again without the plates and now I know. I'll bet we could be running speeds up to 235 without the plates if we spent time doing some tweaking.



"But I'll tell you this, there's no way we could be out there racing at those speeds. It was neat to be out there running that fast by myself, but it would be insane to think we could have a pack of cars out there doing that."



"As for the actual audio test," Barban explained, "Rusty was out there barreling into the corner at 228 (mph) and I could here him crystal clear. So, I'd say that it was a successful test for our friends at Racing Radios."



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