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November 29, 2009
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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How many fans of a sport can watch history being made, and KNOW that what they are watching is going to go down in the record books for fans of the future to read?
When the Miami Dolphins went undefeated in 1972, did anyone believe we would still be looking for a team to match the accomplishment, 37 years later?
When Lou Gehrig went 2,130 games without missing a single one, did the fans think it would be almost six decades before Cal Ripken would play more consecutive games?
Last week, Jimmie Johnson won his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup Championship. A year ago, he tied Cale Yarborough’s seemingly un-beatable three-peat of championships -- a feat that Cale had held on his own for three decades. Yet, as difficult as three titles in a row seemed to be , I don’t know how many people ever actually thought that four in a row could be accomplished -- until the start of this season.
Despite the accomplishments of the 48 Lowe's Team and its driver, I am hearing people who have been fans of the sport for years say they are giving up on NASCAR because of the “cheating ways” of the sports most dominant team.
- “NASCAR is cashing Slick Rick’s (Hendrick) checks and letting that team get away with anything they want!” claimed one outraged fan.
- “Controversy, rigged races (when possible), and favoritism are all part of the show. It's like a prime time sitcom/drama. The drivers, owners and crew chiefs and officials are just the actors. Brian (France), (Mike) Helton and (John) Darby are the producers and directors of the show” said one who compared the sport to professional wrestling.
- “Four in a row from ANYONE these days is more than suspicious though. Two in a row is a major deal. Only a few drivers and teams have done that. Big names like Weatherly, Jarrett, Petty, Pearson. But none of them as GREAT as they were ever won four in a row. Not even Petty in his heyday and winning 27 races in one season won four titles in a row!” explained a third outraged fan.
- “WWF NASCAR is so biased and hypocritical it is pathetic!” was the comment of a fourth. “NASCAR lets the Hendrick teams cheat to whatever it takes to win -- Looks like NASCAR wants to piss Ford and Dodge fans off by making the cheating so noticeable -- they don't even care who knows they cheat and favor certain groups.”
I am curious: were these complaints made back when Cale won his three in a row? How about when Richard Petty won his seventh championship? Did NASCAR fix the race on the 4th of July when he took his 200th win in front of President Ronald Reagan?
When another fan commented to complainer three above “You must have been pounding the keys of the typewriter like crazy to complain. Or back then did you just write scathing reports of how crooked they were to be able to win 3 in a row,” the response was “With a (Junior) Johnson team, you knew it was good. But (Junior) was a racer, not a crooked business man. He earned his titles, he didn't buy them!”
It wasn’t all that long ago that Roush Fenway Racing won back to back Championships, albeit with two different teams. When asked if Jack Roush would be considered a cheat if his team had the 1-2-3 finish that Hendrick Motorsports did this season, the fan talking about NASCAR pissing off Ford and Dodge fans added “No Dodge or Ford team owners have a history of being crooks. Hendrick had THREE cars finish 1-2-3 -- what a coincidence since he was found guilty and should have served a prison term but, his money got him bailed out -- money where he swindled bunches of hard working Americans.”
I am beginning to see a trend here.
I have heard stories about how Chad Knaus, Crew Chief for the 48 team, pushed the boundaries and was found to be “out of bounds” more than once in the early days of the team’s existence. He earned the nickname among many of “Cheater Chad”, and to this day it has stuck.
While I’m not saying the moniker isn’t deserved, I feel NASCAR has done a lot to ensure that the 48 team was NOT cheating its way to a fourth consecutive trophy. In the last ten races, I think the 48 car was taken by NASCAR for inspection post race more than half the time, whether it won the race or not. (When NASCAR takes a car for inspection, the engine is broken down post race, and the car itself is taken back to Concord, NC, to the NASCAR Technical Institute to be broken down and further measured and investigated by NASCAR inspectors.)
To add to the cleanliness of the cars themselves, Knaus has been known to spend sleepless nights going over every aspect of a race and the car in his head. He tries to consider every “what if” he can think of to interfere with the team’s success. Johnson says he runs an entire race through his head the night before, imagining every move he needs to make in every turn.
We aren’t talking about two guys who just happen to work together for a good team. These are two perfectionists that bring that frame of mind to work every day, and use their knowledge and abilities to win races -- and Championships.
Instead of considering the idea that hard work, dedication, and complete focus on a goal led the 48 team to the first ever four-peat in NASCAR, some fans would rather say that there had to be a payoff, cheating, or some other reason for the Lowe's team to make history. While the accomplishments of teams 20 and 30 years ago were simple hard work and ingenuity, now hard work and ingenuity equates to cheating and payoffs.
Personally, while I am not a fan of the 48 team, I am looking at what they have accomplished as historic. Who knows how long it will be until another driver is able to equal what they have done over the last four years. I have missed a lot of the events that have made up the history of NASCAR, but I am glad I am able to say I was a fan for this -- and whatever else is yet to come.
You can contact Kim at.. Insider Racing News
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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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