why did Rowdy cause the accident ?
is he just that much of an jerk to want to cause Cole to run in to him and possibly kill both of them ?
I KNOW 2 things that are clear.I'm a great sinner,Christ is a great Savior.
The cars that had crashed before Rowdy and Cole reached the accident scene had spilled a ton of fluid and God only knows what else. He ran through the fluid and spun out. It was hardly intentional on his part. He may believe himself invincible as illustrated by his monologue to Cole about the injuries he's raced through and stating that as far as he's concerned he'll live forever, but no driver is stupid enough to spin himself - driver's side facing traffic - in order to take out his rival anywhere, much less Daytona.
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I've seen it more than a hundred times (no exaggeration) and I've never once seen anything that indicated anything aside from him spinning out after hitting oil from the cars that had already crashed. If y'all can pinpoint what makes you think Rowdy crashes on purpose (touchy subject given the events of Richmond this past week) then I'd appreciate it.
The stupid, unrealistic thing about the accident is that they were far enough back (on the backstretch, the crash was in turn four) to have slowed to avoid the crash instead of flying into it full speed. They could have picked their way through the accident, taken the caution, and resumed their battle when the race restarted but they fly into it as though it had happened right in front of them or that their lives depended on getting through it at full speed. Maybe the race was nearing its conclusion but I got the sense that it was still fairly early in the race, closer to halfway or so. Same thing with the Daytona 500 accident near the end of the movie, when Cole flies through it but no caution flag was shown. Granted NASCAR wasn't as yellow-happy in 1990 as they are now, but a massive accident will bring out a caution - and probably a red flag - for cleanup of debris and fluid. Less likely at the time to draw a yellow would have been Cole's spin at the hands of Russ, which DOES bring out the caution in the movie. It was silly, but oh well, it's a movie.
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True, they were far enough back to slow down, but that is not how race drivers operate. Because the track is banked and things are moving so quickly, inertia tends to move wrecks to the bottom of the track. As such, drivers are taught and hardwired to pick a high line amd run through the wreck at full speed. 99.9% of the time, this is actually the safest way to go as physics will clear the wreck for you. Of course, there is always that .1%....
shareIn that situation, though, they were so far behind the accident scene that the only reason it would make sense for them to not slow down would be if it was the very end of the race and the accident would have caused the race to finish under yellow, which was never established. Even rivals as fierce as Cole and Rowdy would have put their duel aside for a minute and opted for self-preservation, slowed down, picked through the crash scene, and then resumed their fight once the race restarted.
If I were to remake Days of Thunder, I would have had the pack of cars that crashed be right in front of Cole and Rowdy. I'd have a car blow an engine, dropping oil, Rowdy hits the oil, jumps sideways, over-corrects and hits the outside wall head on, then clips a passing Cole and starts his car barrel-rolling. Cole having his violent accident and Rowdy having career-ending head injuries would have fit that scenario and it would have been a plausible accident (for the period, today with the HANS device Rowdy would have likely been unhurt except for his pride).