Plate racing -- It works at Talladega and Daytona....maybe at California too, Jimmie Johnson says

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   TALLADEGA, Ala.
   Jimmie Johnson says California's Auto Club Speedway might well be suitable for restrictor plate racing, though plate racing there would probably be more similar to Daytona racing than Talladega racing.
   The Los Angeles track has featured less than thrilling races, in part because of extremely high speeds at the end of the straights, and NASCAR has been unable to find a suitable answer for the problems.
    "We have to let off there quite a bit and use a lot of brake…so it's really a downforce track, even though it's so big and sweeping," Johnson says of California. "In qualifying, you're probably out of the gas for four seconds down in turns three and four, and probably six seconds in one and two. So you're out of the gas a while.
    "Here, you never even think about lifting. So that's really the big difference on why we can run in the big pack.
    "But if we had a plate on it (the engine of a California Speedway car)? I've never thought about it. It would slow us down a lot.
    "I'm not sure where it would put us horsepower-wise. It would be 400 to 500, I guess.
    "It might be something similar to that. You might be able to consider it a plate track and draft as you would normally see, maybe."