Catherwood LibraryILR School

Following a massive sixteen-car wreck at the EA Sports 500 last Sunday, many of the most famous names in NASCAR racing delivered an ultimatum to NASCAR's top officers---reform the dangerous, made-for-show rules that caused the crash, or lose the drivers who make car-racing the enormously profitable industry it is. The rules in question are the "aero-package" and the mandated use of restrictor plates that many believe led to the death of Dale Earnhardt earlier this year only minutes after railing against these rules to his pit crew. The only two previous times in NASCAR's history when drivers have engaged in collective activity, management used scabs, lockouts and threats of physical violence to force drivers back into a system where management makes all the rules, pay and equipment decisions, and the drivers take all the risks.