Quote:
Originally Posted by Midget98
While I love the safety improvements that have been added over the years, I truly believe that this sort of racing is a direct result of safety improvements and nearly totally enclosed cockpits. While it is still dangerous, the "fear" of being seriously injured or killed is mostly gone. I have no interest in going back to the days of seeing a weekly death notice on the cover of Speed Sport News, but the risk of injury or death had a tempering effect on the aggressive moves that were made by the drivers.
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This is a big part of it. I also think the lack of good ole fashioned pit justice comes into play often times also. In the old days, knuckleheads would get a knuckle sandwich & get brought back in line (or keep getting knuckle sandwiches). Nowadays, any sort of physical retaliation is frowned upon & an offender runs risk of being suspended, fined, etc.
I think your point is especially true in modern day Nascar. Look at how those restrictor plate races are. Rolling demo derbies with blocking like crazy. 30 years ago, those pileups could send you to the morgue so there was a lot more decorum.
It is great that the sport is generally much safer than the old days, but there was a certain soberness that was brought to on track behavior when most everyone with experience had attended funerals for fellow drivers.