Unrestricted at Talladega

How did I miss this?

Rusty Wallace ran a test session at Talladega Superspeedway on June 9, without the restrictor plate. His top straightaway speed was 228 mph, and his fastest lap speed was 216.309 mph. Wallace believes that with the proper setup, cars could reach 235 mph straightaway speeds there.

There's no chance that speeds will be allowed to reach these levels in a race situation, though. This was a Nextel radio communications test, designed to improve radio coverage at high speeds. Hopefully someday, NA$CAR will come up with a way to keep the speeds managable at Daytona and Talladega without the restrictor plate. With racing having as bad as it's been in the last several years though, will there be anyone left who cares?