August 21, 2008
By Brian Watkins
Brian Watkins
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Jimmy, Johnny and Jed were all sitting at the bar cracking jokes about how Jeff’s wife had cheated on him. The laughed about how stupid he was to not see it coming- how naïve he was to think she was above all that. The jokes came easy, and they laughed into the night.
The next night the laughter had stopped. They had each discovered that while they were out at the bar, each of their wives had strayed as well. It wasn’t so funny then.
It is easy to criticize those who you don’t like. It’s easy to sit back and laugh as those you don’t care for deal with the consequences of their actions. Like Jimmy, Johnny and Jed I have laughed and joked at the expense of other teams and their cheating. I’ve written many a column about how other teams tried to slip one by NASCAR and got busted.
I gloated when the 99 team was penalized for their oil lid scam.- partly because I thought it was stupid, and partly because, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a big fan of Roush-Fenway.
Today however, I came home and found out that “my” team had been up to no good- that my team had tried and failed to fool NASCAR. Today I eat a portion of crow.
I could try and spin it and say “At least Gibbs confessed and apologized, unlike Roush who whined about the penalty and never admitted anything”. I would be correct on the facts, but the spirit of the issue is the same. They cheated, period.
I wrote a season or so ago about the old saying we had in the Army. “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’ (and if you get caught, you’re not trying hard enough)” Well, it appears that the Gibbs’ Nationwide team wasn’t trying hard enough. What’s worse, is that they didn’t even need to try- they were blowing the competition away. Even after the engine rule change, they were red hot. Why wasn’t that good enough? Why risk besmirching the Gibbs name and adding an asterisk to the season? Why take what has been a story book first season with a new manufacturer and dangle it over the crapper (and then let it fall in)?
It’s almost like finding out your favorite baseball player is a ‘roid shooting junkie who beats his kids and kicks his dog.
While the penalties in NASCAR’s second tier series are not nearly as stiff as in Cup, you’d think all the teams would have figured out that NASCAR is serious when it comes to inspections and tampering with the cars. Not only does it display a poor lack of judgment, it reflects an incredibly bad sense of timing.
In case it hadn’t been noticed, the automotive industry ain’t doin’ so hot. While Toyota is faring better than most, now is not the time to poke the golden goose; And it’s certainly not the time to be raising the ire of the fan base.
Logano has been touted as the next big thing in cup, possibly strapping on the Home depot #20 next season. Now he has an asterisk by association.
Stewart is leaving Gibbs to start his own show. What better way to make sure any fans that might have been swayed to Toyota with his move from Chevy leave with him when he switches back next season.
I’ve been a supporter of Toyota since they announced their entry into Cup, and I’ve made no secret of my support for Kyle Bush and the Gibbs team. It was painful to watch Waltrip and “fuelgate” at Daytona last season. It was laughable to listen to the garage talk when “swaybargate” hit earlier this year. But those were other Toyota teams- not “mine”. But now with “Magnetgate”, “Dynogate” or whatever other ‘gate’ you’d like to call it, I get to suffer the slings and arrows of those who now have every right to yell “Cheaters!”.
While there is something to be said for owning up to your bad choices- you, and your fans, must suffer with those choices.
I still support Toyota and JGR. I’ll still cheer for Logano, Busch and the rest in both series. But I’ll do so with the nearly subconscious worry that somehow, someway it will happen again.
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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