After the dust settled on the chaotic showdown at Phoenix in the NASCAR Truck Series, a wave of criticism washed over the scene, with seasoned NASCAR insiders and drivers pointing fingers at the rookies. There was a ray of hope that these truck series hopefuls would take the lessons to heart and show some maturing in the races to come. Yet, as the engines roared to life at Daytona for the season’s opener, it was clear that old habits die hard, with the truck series and ARCA races looking more like demolition derbies than disciplined contests.

So, what’s going through the minds of these drivers as they barrel towards mayhem? Kenny Wallace, a titan of the Xfinity Series, decided to shed some light on this conundrum in his latest YouTube deep dive.

Kenny Wallace has a theory on why the track’s been looking more like a battlefield lately

Wallace reckons the root of all these aggressive tangles and crashes boils down to the younger generation of drivers trying their hand at something known as tandem drafting. The technique, once a staple, turned taboo when NASCAR gave it the red flag due to the high-risk factor, as it led to some pretty gnarly wrecks. Now Wallace broke it down, explaining how tandem drafting turned races into a blind man’s bluff, with the lead car’s driver being the only set of eyes for both, making it a recipe for disaster.

“Tandem drafting was a phenomenon and then NASCAR outlawed it it was dangerous the wrecks were catastrophic because this guy would be pushing you and you couldn’t see you had to rely on the guy in the front but if that guy in the front okay right so this guy’s going. The guy behind couldn’t see and he might lead you right in the smashing into another car,” he pointed out.

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Further clarifying, he mentioned that NASCAR put the brakes on drivers sticking too close for comfort, marking it illegal to shadow another car too closely around the track. “Why are they wrecking because this new generation of drivers are trying to emulate all this. They’re trying to emulate side draft and they’re trying to emulate bump drafting they’re trying to emulate tandem drafting,” Wallace added.

This trend was glaringly apparent during the latest NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season kick-off at Daytona International Speedway, where a multi-truck pile-up as early as Lap 6 was just the tip of the iceberg. The Fresh From Florida 250 turned into a caution fest, setting a record with 12 caution flags flying, including a dramatic final lap that saw Taylor Gray take a terrifying tumble over his fellow racers.

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Miraculously, all drivers walked away unscathed, but the wreckage left behind painted a vivid picture of young guns pushing the envelope too far in their quest for glory. The move, critiqued by Wallace, also drew ire from the likes of Ty Dillon and Toni Breidinger, who found themselves caught in the crossfire of this high-stakes game of chicken.

Ty Dillon and Toni Breidinger didn’t hold back when addressing the rampant roughhousing in the NASCAR Truck and ARCA series

Dillon, who’s been around the NASCAR block for 13 years, found himself smack in the middle of the evening’s first big brouhaha involving a baker’s dozen trucks. Reflecting on his brief six-lap stint, he described the scene as sheer pandemonium. “Nobody really drafts anymore in practice. We don’t really put rookies in a good spot to learn. They just kind of get thrown into the fire,” Dillon observed.

“And that’s kind of what it looked like. I’ve never seen anything look like that from behind the wheel four laps into a race. With my experience, I knew something was gonna happen. That’s why I got myself back to the bottom to hopefully have a spot to bail. And sure enough, it happened.”

Breidinger, on the other side, had her own share of trials and tribulations. Betrayed by her teammate Dean Thompson in her Truck Series debut, and then again in ARCA by her Venturini Motorsports comrade, Gus Dean, she was left seething. “I did the entire truck race, people were very aggressive,” Breidinger lamented.

“I’m trying to be nice and so #55 is my teammate but definitely is disappointing. It’s so early on in the race, really unnecessary move. Even later in the race, that would have been a bad move. I mean, you’re not clear, not clear. It’s unfortunate he has a lack of respect for his teammates and other people in the track that work really hard to get here when his dad is running the track. So I think that just has to do with his lack of respect.”

Very recently, she even tweeted “dream come true to race under the lights at Daytona. felt like we had a solid run going but wrong place at the wrong time twice,” clearly irate by the weekend gone wrong.

So, where do you stand on the whole demolition derby approach to racing? Do you see it as part and parcel of the sport, or is it crossing the line?

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