Late one evening last week the news broke that NASCAR had found two cars, the No. 5 and No. 48 Chevy’s belonging to Hendrick Motorsports, might have problems.
The two cars in question were from the Dover race. Mark Martin finished second in the race in the No. 5 and Jimmie Johnson won in the No. 48. The story floating around was that NASCAR had found problems with the cars in post race inspection at the track and had taken them back to the R&D Center in Concord for further study.
Soon after the news leaked out there was a whisper of that dreaded word ‘cheating’.
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That night all around the NASCAR Nation you could almost hear the sound of the collective holding of breaths.
Cheating.
The defending champion along with the guy everyone loves to love, the same guy who could win it all this year and no one would mind a bit.
Cheating.
That seemed to be the connotation that night. The word hung out there like a carrot waiting to be grabbed. It would be the biggest scandal in NASCAR history. The point’s leader, Captain America, caught cheating.
No doubt there were phone calls behind the scenes and even a few offices lit up past midnight as NASCAR scrambled to get an explanation ready.
And on Thursday NASCAR issued a statement as the media fins swam in a circle at their feet
"The 48 and 5 were brought back to the R&D center. We've been doing this since the inception of the new car as a part of routine post-race inspection. We bring the winner and a random pick back to the R&D center after each event. While both cars passed post-race inspection, we informed the 48 and 5 they were extremely close on some of the tolerances."
In other words, the guys at Hendrick did what they are good at it; they pushed the envelope, nearly to the breaking point. They hadn’t ripped the paper, but it was sure strained.
How close? According to Sprint Cup Series director John Darby, also known as the ‘man’:
"The numbers that we publish in the rulebook in most cases are the nominal or 'Here's-what-you-must-be' numbers,'" Darby told the Sporting News. "The claw grid (templates) that we use, the height sticks -- most of our checking devices -- have that nominal number indicated, as well as colors. Take our height stick, for example. There's where the number's supposed to be, then a green area, a yellow area and a red area. The green is your working area that's published in the rulebook. Yellow is what we're going to give you in good faith. When you hit red, you've gone too far. If you want to relate it to that type of a situation, Hendrick's cars were at the line that defines the difference between yellow and red.
NASCAR called the respective crew chiefs in, showed them what they had found and engaged them in a discussion. Pretty much saying, you passed this time…but don’t let it come this close again.
Hendrick has been known to push the limit before. In 1997 Jeff Gordon with then crew chief Ray Evernham brought a car to the All-Star Event that they named T-Rex. The car passed post race inspection, but NASCAR told them to never bring it to a track again.
And this isn’t the first time Chad Knaus has been embroiled in controversy. In February 2006 he was ‘escorted’ from the confines of Daytona International Speedway after the No. 48 failed inspection for being too low. And in 2007 Knaus presented the No. 48 for inspection at Infineon Raceway and NASCAR disqualified the car. Johnson was forced to start at the rear of the field in a backup car and Knaus was suspended for six races.
The problem at Infineon in 2007 was the shape of the fenders on the car, the same type of problem NASCAR found last week.
But was it cheating?
Of course not. It was simply the ‘limit pushing’, the creative experimentation, Hendrick and Knaus are famous for.
Unlike other areas of the car, NASCAR has some tolerances, gray areas, when it comes to the bodywork and smart crew chiefs try to exploit that by pushing it as far as they can get.
There are other parts of the car where NASCAR allows no quarter…the engine for example. Under the hood NASCAR won’t be so forgiving. Witness one Carl Long. Back in May Long was found to have a car with an engine that was over bored, essentially too big. Long was suspended 12 weeks and his crew chief was fined $200,000. The suspension was later lowered to eight weeks on appeal but the fine remained.
In the case of the Hendrick cars, the area they decided to exploit was one that NASCAR does allow a little gray area for and in an effort to find every bit of speed Hendrick pushed the gray area right to the line.
Maybe the worst thing to come out of the whole deal for Hendrick was having NASCAR explain to everyone in the world exactly what the crew chiefs were doing. Most of us were scratching our heads wondering what they were really talking about, while all the other crew chiefs in the garage were furiously taking notes and saying to themselves ‘ah ha’.
But was it cheating?
Of course not, it was just one of them racin’ deals.
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Comments
i work at r&d center i know for a fact 5&48 did not meet spect. if i told my name i would be out. its not first time this yr 88 has prob also. u can beleive it or not
The winning car is always taken to the R&D after the race..along with a random car or two just for "good measure". HOW many times have we heard from NASCAR..."the number 20, 17, 6, 14, etc. etc... have PASSED inspection?" UMMMM...I can't remember NASCAR issuing such a statement in the past.. I am sure if you searched the websites in passing you could find a note here or there saying the cars passed...but a NEWS RELEASE?? This doesn't just ring of "black helicopters"...it brings out the red flag! I'm sorry..you reporters and announcers can spout over and over in your most "NASCAR is fair, great, and wonderful" voices..but something does "smell"... Between NASCAR telling Brad K. to "not play so hard with the BIG BOYS" (even though they were beating and pushing him around) and coming out with a "NON NEWS RELEASE" (the 48 and 5 were WITHIN tolerances?? Maybe it WAS newsworthy..maybe they weren't within tolerances all the other races?!) this Chase is tainted..
And by the way..wasn't it convenient NASCAR took the 48 and 5 cars for inspection after Kansas....welll duh!!! Did anyone (including NASCAR) think they would be anything but LEGAL? Duhhhhhhhhh....
Dang Greg! You are a glutton for punishment. The JM article got enough attention, but now you're pickin on the Hendrick fan base. I'm not sure there will be enough blog space for the responses.
Cheating? We've dirttracked for years. Inspections are done, tolerances are often close. Cheating with me is the blatant disregard for the rules, or being "out" of the template. I watched NASCAR do a post-race inspection the #48 at Texas in the spring of this year. I noticed the colors on the template. It gave me a better understanding of how NASCAR keeps the competition fair.
If this is cheating, then going 4.5 mph over the pit road speed is as well. I understand NASCAR gives the drivers 5 mph grace on pit road speed and some push the envelope every stop. They go right against the line (grey) and still continue to race. They don't call it cheating, they call it very close. The penalty is minor. It's nothing new for the Hendrick teams to push the line and we can expect it again in the fut
Hendrick has ruined the chase completely with his total domination and sister teams that are no more than another Hendrick team (Stewart for example).
It's funny how NASCAR jumps right on changes to the rules in Nationwide IF any one team wins tomuch but in Sprint with Hendricks BIG $$$$, just let them rule the whole season. I've stop watching the chase and NASCRAP completely due to letting Hendrick do whatever he wants. You can bet your pay check IF it was any other team, IT WOULD OF BEEN CALLED CHEATING.
I laugh and laugh each time I read that track attendance and TV audience is DOWN from last year (which was down from the year before). NASCRAP id getting what they deserve...
Back in 1999 someone asked me if my Earnhardt t-shirt was for one of the WWF wrestlers. Heck no, I said, NASCAR is real competition, it is not staged like big time wrestling. If someone asked me the same question today, I would have to say yes, Nascar is staged, they only let big money teams like Hendrick win the Championship.
I won't be buying anything Nascar this year, not tickets, not merchandise, not driver associated products.
Who cares? All the teams push the envelope as far as they can and always have. In fact, there is probably less opporunity to cheat now than there was in the so-called good old days. Like Junior Johnson running an extra fuel tank or whatever. Stop trying to make a controversy where there is none. If there is anything suspect in NASCAR, it is those phantom cautions for debris in the last hundred laps to bunch up the field. Let 'em run a race caution free for once and watch JJ lap the field in Sprint Cup or Kyle in Nationwide. NASCAR will NEVER let that happen.
josie said: "I can't remember NASCAR issuing such a statement in the past.. I am sure if you searched the websites in passing you could find a note here or there saying the cars passed...but a NEWS RELEASE?? This doesn't just ring of "black helicopters"...it brings out the red flag!"
Really? Do you honestly think so?
Might I suggest you apply for access to NASCAR's media site, each and every inspection whether passed or not is in fact reported via an official news release.
The problem, one you wrongly assign to NASCAR, is located with new outlets through the country that fail to publish the releases.
Now don't you feel silly?
If it were a Rousch team, they would have been fined and docked points. Hendricks teams and their satellite teams can do anything and get away with it. That is why NASCAR is losing fans. If Jimmie Johnson wins another championship this year, I am done with NASCAR.
guys if NASCAR was in the business of "staging" races, wouldn't the 88 car (the most popular driver, by far) be in the chase?
why dont nascar let all c cheif watch insp.
if a car passes insp before race it should be legal or someone in insp is falling down on job and needs to be fired no questions asked.
Bring a completely, so legal car to the track that Nascar doesn't even look hard at it and you better have car owner points to make the field. And you're gonna finish 43rd unless someone wrecks ahead of you.
mikey - "if a car passes insp before race it should be legal or someone in insp is falling down on job and needs to be fired no questions asked."
So your saying nothing can happen during an event that can effect a cars ability to pass inspection?
You know, things like crash damage that allows one corner, or side of the car not to meet measurement reqs, or damage to shocks and springs due to damage or part defect.
Please tell me you're so divorced from reality you can't understand that.
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