Cheating…it’s
a eight letter word that ranks lower than a four-letter word in many circles.
The very mention of it conjures up the vision of an individual who cannot
win fairly and squarely.
We live in a world that tacitly condones the practice, whether it’s baseball players injecting steroids or an enterprising crew chief blatantly breaking the rules under the noses of the tech inspectors.
We launched a NASCAR-related online publication a little over two months
ago (CircleTrackPlus.com)
and within a week we were faced with our first controversial story. A
prominent crew chief had been found guilty of adjusting the angle of the
rear window on his team’s car under the noses of the technical inspectors.
Two key elements did him in. First, the plan was foiled by teammates of
the same manufacturer and secondly, he gambled on the routine nature of
those inspecting the car.
The blatant violation could have easily passed tech had he not been ratted out and had the officials checking for violations not opted to change their method of operation.
I immediately noticed the disparity in doling out punishment between NASCAR and drag racing. Instead of throwing the book at him, NASCAR merely sent him home and pushed his car to the rear of the starting line-up. The team lost no points but lost the presence of this key team member at the races, although he remained in touch via cell phone and fax machine. The crew chief and the team also incurred a substantial monetary fine.
Then a different team got caught with an illegal carburetor on an engine
prepared by yet another team and received a penalty that included a loss
of points and money. Over the last four weeks, we have received several
press releases reporting fines for improprieties at almost every event.
There’s nothing like an incident of unfair play to rekindle memories
of drag racing’s disparity in doling out punishments.
I can’t help but wonder how things would be different for at least one individual who lost it all in the mid-90s when his team was caught in a major rules violation (although even that’s in some dispute because of the vague manner in which the rules were written) while another team, who was never formally charged with improprieties, went on with business as usual. He’s since gotten his life back in order but it wasn’t before going through the hell of being labeled a cheater, contemplating suicide and having the most positive aspect of his life tarnished beyond repair.
You
have to remember that his team was the one busted in the midst of a scandal
in which certain Pro Stock teams had fire belching out of their car’s
hood scoops (a known and all-too-common characteristic of nitrous oxide)
and and a couple of others “turned themselves in” to prove
that the tech inspectors weren’t savvy enough to catch them using
nitrous. The sad part of it all is that the racers who questioned the
abilities of the tech inspectors were right.
In fact, this scandal only fell by the wayside when one team mysteriously suffered a questionable mechanical setback. We have heard the rumors and innuendos. Those speculations were only fueled when the team returned two years later almost on the same date of their original “misfortune.”
As some say, that’s old news, and who cares?
I have personally asked the individual in question to go on the record
and talk about the incident. He has said that he did not know what was
going on under his nose, and I personally believe him. Yet, he’s
the one who continues to bears the brunt of the shame.
“Is talking with you going to do me any good?” he said. “Can
you give me ten years back of my life? What guarantees are you going to
provide me that (the sanctioning body) won’t come and try to take
away the one bit of enjoyment I have left (which is) wrenching on this
race car. Nobody cares but me and you, and that’s the way it is
always going to be.”
The sad part about it is, he’s probably right. It's really galling
to see the broken look on this individual’s face while others alleged
to be involved in this scandal have moved on. He can play again with the
payment of a $25,000 fine. At this point and time, is it really worth
it to pay the fee to play in a playground where the same things that got
him banished are going on as blatantly as they were back then? Why bother?
Why bother when the nitrous oxide of today has become special carburetors and traction control? Why bother when upstanding moral individuals are dragged through the mud for wristpin violations while illegal wheel-wells are given a pat on the back by former manufacturer-reps-turned-NHRA officials?
I recently spoke with a high ranking sanctioning body official on the subject of NASCAR cheating. He commented that those guys have always been cheating since the days of running moonshine. I merely nodded my head in agreement and walked away while refraining from the comment, “They’ve been doing it in drag racing as well.”
I’ve always considered the difference between drag racing and stock
car racing in handing out the proper punishments to be akin to stealing
in the United States and doing it in a Third World country. Here in the
States, a “celebrity” thief may become even more famous with
a mere slap on the wrist, while someone of lesser privilege, i.e. someone
who can’t afford a high-priced defense team, becomes just another
forgotten number in the penal system. In the Third World, you might lose
a hand or your life.
Guess what? People are still going to cheat and they are still going to do what it takes to get ahead. Remember the old saying “It ain’t cheating unless you get caught.” Or, is it?
Maybe it’s time the sport starts cutting some hands off, at least
in the figurative sense. Or, if we refuse to do that, maybe it’s
about time we let those who have more than paid their penalties in terms
of lost income and stature play again.
Maybe we should just adopt the policy of NASCAR, levy a non-death sentence,
and move on.
C
You
have to remember that his team was the one busted in the midst of a scandal
in which certain Pro Stock teams had fire belching out of their car’s
hood scoops (a known and all-too-common characteristic of nitrous oxide)
and and a couple of others “turned themselves in” to prove
that the tech inspectors weren’t savvy enough to catch them using
nitrous. The sad part of it all is that the racers who questioned the
abilities of the tech inspectors were right. 
