Say It Ain’t So, Junior

March 1, 2008

By Brenda Benedict

Okay, I admit it. I’m confused. When NASCAR handed out their fines, penalties and suspensions after the races at Daytona, I knew that something was not making sense. So I began listening to what everyone was saying. That was easy to do because everyone was talking about it.

At the Auto Club 500 Sunday, there were hours of air time to fill because of the rain delays, the weepers delays, the yellow flags and the red flags. The commentators spoke at length about the penalty situation in NASCAR. Possibly the fear of not having something to say with all that air time to fill overcame their better judgment but I think we were given a clear explanation of how racing teams look at NASCAR rules and regulations.

Rusty Wallace said that as an owner, getting fined for an infraction makes an owner feel that their character has been attacked. He stated that they “suffer suspicion that they’ve got a cheating car.” So, I thought, no owner wants to have a team of his indicted for not following the rules. An owner can tell their employees that not following the rules will not be tolerated. And that is what Rusty Wallace said that some owners tell their employees. Simple enough.

But then I heard Dale, Jr. talk about his Nationwide team’s penalties and he said that they got caught doing what everyone else was doing. How could this be? If there was to be no cheating, how could everyone be doing it?

The FOX commentators admitted that things are done when NASCAR officials are out of sight. Dale Jarrett stated that the drivers are looking for crew chiefs to “skirt things”, or at least they were when penalties weren’t nearly so severe.

Brad Doughtery told us that teams want to attempt to maintain ‘a competitive edge’ and that they have always manipulated the rules to get the best performance from their cars. What has changed, according to Doughtery, is the severity of penalties given when the team is caught.

Andy Petree admitted that the new approach to violations by NASCAR “has sucked all the fun out of being a crew chief”. He also admitted that he has “played the game”.

I now see that a competitive edge means doing something to your car to make it go faster. Simple as that. The goal of every team is to win the race and so getting a competitive edge is necessary to reach that goal, or is it? Does this make it the right thing to do?

I have friends whose children race go-karts. I must admit that they, too, have made adjustments to their karts to help them maintain a “competitive edge”. Of course, when the officials ordered a tear down of the engine after a race and the owner refused, the “competitive edge” maneuver was labeled cheating and the win was taken away from the young driver.

The recent news from the baseball world speaks to the same problem. Players are being accused of using performance enhancing drugs to improve their games. Could it be said that they are trying to develop a “competitive edge” over other players? There seems to be no doubt that performance enhancing drugs are cheating. Congress’ investigation and a pending perjury investigation speaks to the seriousness of the problem.

Are we to think that not getting caught makes an action acceptable? A person who only follows the rules while being watched is not a trustworthy person. Your actions while not being observed are the real mark of character.

NASCAR has always been a sport that exemplifies what is best in America. No other sport on the national level pays homage to the ideals that we hold dear-God, country and family. Let’s remember to keep these in mind when we say that not following the rules is just manipulating our car to get the best performance. We shouldn’t be proud that everyone is doing it.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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