Do you agree with this statement?

Question

"Any infraction severe enough to warrant a penalty for which the primary car-preparer is fined and banned from the track for multiple events should automatically make that team ineligible for contending for a championship."

Taken from this article on Nascar.com http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/opinion/12/04/middle.man/index.html

Answer 1

Absolutely not.

First of all most infractions that fans call cheating are not cheating at all. The only attempt at cheating I know of last year was Michael Waltrips intake at daytona.

Having a fender high or low or shaped differently isn't cheating. These things aren't hidden, they are open to inspection, if they fail it means the car isn't legal to race. Every other racing body allows cars failing pre race inspection to be made legal with no penalties.

Nascar has caused all this "cheating" controversy by not calling Waltrips manifold cheating and not defining a failure to meet template measurements or grey area guidelines as simply not meeting the specs.

Calling every infraction "detrimental to blah.....blah.....blah" makes them all seem similar when they are not.

To make a comparison, if you were caught with Waltrips manifold in the NHRA you would face at least a years ban and possibly a life time ban from owning, racing or driving in NHRA competition.

If you failed inspection at an NHRA event because fenders were shaped wrong, you would be allowed to modify the fenders to bring them into specs and still race the event with no penalty.

Answer 2

In a nutshell, NO. If there was a black and white rule book that every team could refer to as absolute right or wrong I might be more open to this line of thinking. Unfortunately the rules change more than the title sponsors do these days. There is way too much subjective language in the rules and the way in which they are enforced. Add in obligations to the sponsors and fans and you would have a loss of ratings and fan support like you've never seen in NASCAR before. Can you imagine if Jr or Gordon were banned for multiple races, people would never forgive Mike, Brian, Robin and the rest of the people that arbitrarily dictate consistently inconsistent punishments for infractions that were never clearly defined in the first place. If you try to target the people you don't like (I'm assuming HMS for most) you will most likely end up affecting other drivers that were never meant to be the focus of this in the first place. If you think Rick doesn't factor in the consequences of what his crew chiefs do you are seriously mistaken. He knows how to work the system and continually takes calculated risks. If something like you suggest was in place he would make sure they never stepped over the line. People can sit around and complain about what they are doing or they can try to come up with a plan to beat them. You can change the car AND the rules but the cream will always rise to the top. Sometimes what people ask for one year isn't what they end up liking the next. Look at the "Jr/Smoke/Gordon rule" (top 12 make the chase) and making wins a bigger priority (a lot of people say Jeff is the real winner) as examples of being careful what you ask for because you might not like the end result.

Ray Y: I don't believe Rick Hendrick believes that Chad is an embarrassment to the company and HIS opinion is the only one that really matters. In fact, I would say he considers him an invaluable asset. Was Smokey Yunick considerd to be an embarrassment?

Answer 3

No, I do not agree with that statement because cheating is a part of the deal. Yes, there needs to be an even field every week to make everything fair but NASCAR, along with other sports or businesses, need to have those people that are willing to go outside of the box and do something that is not written in the rule book or something that has not been thought of yet. Otherwise, there would be not type of growth whatsoever and we would just be stuck without any improvements in life.

Also, forcing them not to be able to compete for a championship would be wrong because what if it was an accident for the infraction but NASCAR doesn't know about it. For example, is Michael Waltrip is telling the truth about not knowing anything about the substance in the fuel tank, he would have been penalized from any possibility of a championship (now he wasn't even able to compete in every race but what if it were to happen to Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, or even Dale Junior).

Anyway, I don't condone cheating but I do realize that it does its pros and cons.

Answer 4

NO. He is only one person on the team. If a football player gets suspended for one or more games for an on-field infraction should that make the whole team ineligible to make the playoffs and win the Superbowl? No. You can't punish the entire team for one person's mistake.

Answer 5

Bad thing about that is, it would come down to interpretation, and change the infractions. NASCAR isn't gonna let it's top teams (the $$$$ teams that draw all the fans) be out of contention for the title. It would never happen. If it did, everyone would look at things a little more seriously, and not push the envelope quite so far!

Great question.

Go Jr.>>>>

Answer 6

well for one thing it was in an "opinion" column. Here is mine.
Johnson's crew chief is a master cheater who has been caught a few times but that is not all of the story. Although I intensely dislike Johnson, I recognize his great improvement over the past 5 years. He wrecks a lot fewer people, than he used to. Johnson's driving is a big part of the picture not just the crew chief's preparation. Why penalize that. Johnson could still race while chad was chumping around off the track, and won a few without chad's actual preparation of the car.

Answer 7

No, after reading Beth's answer I also think that it would be hard to trust Nascar to enforce the rules fairly!
Another thing to think about is if they pass a rule like that the sponsorship contracts would soon include a clause saying, if the team disqualifies itself from the championship then the sponsor can withdraw from or change the terms of the contract. That alone would sink the team for the entire year! No, I don't trust Nascar to rule fairly!
If Nascar wants to stop cheating the first thing they need to do is clean up their own act before people start calling this sport the wwf or wwe!
Just my thoughts!

Answer 8

I doubt if it would come to be that would make to much since for Brain France to come up with. A lot of these know it all's are saying no, but hey if your not good enough to cheat and not get caught you should sit out the championship. I would fire JJ's crew chief just for the fact that he gets caught once or twice a year and is an embarrassment to the company. So they got the championship by cheating they got it by cheating. I would much rather get it straight up.
But one thing to remember this is not the days of the sane NA$CAR. It is run by a punk that has no idea of racing just $ and to sit out for a race or two for using the wrong bolt would not be a fair thing compared to using some sort of fuel additive or a spring that would collapse to sit the car lower and then put a spacer in towards the end of the race to regain height.

Answer 9

I disagree and think the liability should be extended until the last inspection before qualifying, and the team given a chance to rectify any specifications outside the guidelines, until that time.

Answer 10

NO! Then there would be like only 2 or 3 teams eligible for the cup after race 3 or something.

Answer 11

I agree with the statement, but I can tell you right now. There will be people out there that will complain about the rule, especially if its used on their driver, yet at the same time, when the cheating goes nuts, and NASCAR wouldnt/wont do much, then they would complain about rampant cheating.