Have NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Officials Eliminated Cheating?

February 21, 2008
By Allen Madding

Allen Madding

Every year as we gear up for the Daytona 500, a list of teams is released detailing who’s cars failed post-qualifying and/or pre-race inspection and the infractions that were found. Usually, Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 is on the list and his crew chief ends up suspended. But Sprint Cup officials have made their message very clear, “Don’t mess with the new car.” And the penalties they have imposed for “messing” with the new car have been steep. But after years of reading the reports of who was found trying to do what, it is a bit surprising that no such list was released for the Sprint Cup Series during this year’s speedweeks.

But it seems the elimination of cheating appears to be isolated to the Cup Series.

Several cars were caught in the NASCAR Nationwide Series during post-qualifying inspection. Teams have long known that any air that can be removed from under the car at a Superspeedway helps the car squat lower and reduces drag. So how did the Nationwide cars attempt to utilize this knowledge? The container that the oil tank sits in -- behind the driver -- is open to the ground beneath it. Several teams had discovered that if they did not fasten the lid on this compartment, the air beneath the car would push it off and provide an escape route of the air underneath the car and provide better overall speed.

NASCAR officials found the No. 77 driven by Cale Gale, the No. 1 driven by Johnny Sauter, No. 14 driven by David Gilliland, the No. 64 driven by David Stremme, and the No. 0 driven by Kertus Davis had all been guilty of this infraction. All of their qualifying times were disallowed and the drivers were forced to make the starting field by their points from last season. Kertus Davis then failed to make the starting field for lack of points and negotiations took place to get him behind the wheel of the No. 01 that had been qualified by Dewayne Leik.

In addition to this trick, the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 entry in the NASCAR Nationwide Series driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. was impounded on Thursday when officials discovered the team had modified the rear spoiler for aerodynamic enhancement. NASCAR returned the car to the team without the rear deck lid or spoiler. The team was allowed to compete, but officials noted penalties would be handed down on Tuesday.

Michael Waltrip’s team continued its history of rule infractions at Daytona only this year they only got caught with their proverbial hand in the cookie jar in the Nationwide Series. The teams No. 99 driven by David Reutimann was found to have an illegally modified carburetor. The carburetor's venturis size exceeded the specifications in the rulebook. This modification would allow more air to pass through the carburetor to the severely restricted engine potentially making increased horsepower.

So why did we not see the typical list of cheaters and infractions at Daytona in the Sprint Cup Series?

Has NASCAR finally raised the fines and punishments for infractions of the Sprint Cup rulebook to a level that teams not deem it unprofitable to bend the rules? Or have the teams become so clever that the NASCAR inspectors could not find their creativity? If we continue to see the trend of cars passing the inspection process in the Cup Series and cheaters getting busted in the Truck and Nationwide Series, expect to see a change in the rule enforcement in those divisions as well.

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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