Restrictor plate tracks are easy, yet tough

After winning Saturday night's Sprint Cup race in Kentucky, Brad Keselowski cut his hand on a bottle of champagne. He had to go to the infield care center to get stitches, and then showed up at the media center with his bandaged hand. When asked whether it would affect his driving at Daytona this upcoming Saturday evening, Keselowski said he didn't think he would have any problems because Daytona is "probably the easiest track you could ask for".

Quite a few NASCAR fans disagree with Keselowski's comment, especially since Dale Earnhardt Jr., a dominator at Daytona and sister track Talladega during much of his time with his late father's team Dale Earnhardt Inc., won the last Cup race there, the Daytona 500 in February. But there are also the people who think anyone can luck into a win in a restrictor plate race.

Restrictor plate races weren't even called that until 1988. That's when restrictor plates were implemented at Daytona and Talladega following Bobby Allison's Talladega crash in 1987. The main goal of restrictor plates is to slow down the cars and make it somewhat harder to pass. This is why some NASCAR fans think only so many drivers have the right skills to succeed in plate races.

But there are many examples that support the opposite argument about how anyone can win a plate race. Last year, the spring race at Talladega saw a surprise winner with David Ragan scoring an upset win for an underfunded team with a last-lap pass, with teammate David Gilliland right behind him. Another notable example is the 2000 fall Talladega race, which saw Dale Earnhardt go from 17th to the lead in four laps en route to his 76th and final Cup Series win. This after his son and driver Dale Jr. and teammate Mike Skinner traded the lead a few laps earlier. Then there's the 2007 Daytona 500 with 34th-place starter Kevin Harvick going from 6th to first in half a lap, and the next year's Daytona 500 with Kurt Busch pushing then-teammate Ryan Newman past Tony Stewart on the final lap to give Newman the win.

So maybe restrictor plate racing comes easy to some drivers, but for others it's all a matter of luck and hoping they'll get a good draft to get into the lead and have a chance to win. That makes racing at Daytona and Talladega easy, but hard at the same time.