|
Cheating - An
Inside Look at the Bad Things Good NASCAR Winston Cup Racers
Do In Pursuit of Speed
By Tom Jensen
You’ve read the NASCAR
announcements before. Ones that read like “ Crew Chief Joe
Smith of the no. 07 car has been fined $25,000 for using a
non-approved spring…..”. Last November, Mark Martin’s point
penalty almost decided whether he would win the
championship. Have you ever wondered how NASCAR determines
penalties or why race teams would risk punishment and do
such illegal things? If so, this is the book for you.
Ever since the first sanctioned
stock car race in 1949, drivers, mechanics, suppliers and
owners have pushed the limits of NASCAR’s regulations in
order to gain an upper hand against the competition. Let’s
face it, anyone involved with the racing community has one
goal in mind – winning. In many cases, that resulted in
bending or circumventing the rules. Other times, it involved
blatant cheating.
Cheating is a wonderfully
written history of the never-ending search for ways to
obtain a racing advantage. The author uses his four year
experience as the executive editor of NASCAR Winston Cup
Scene to help him obtain a great deal of first hand
information for this book. During his research, he
interviewed (formally and informally) dozens of the biggest
names in NASCAR, some of which have since passed on. Some
were willing to share their recollections, while others were
reluctant to elaborate on certain incidents. Nonetheless,
this book contains the most comprehensive information ever
published on the subject of cheating in NASCAR.
|
Numerous NASCAR officials inspect the cars for even the
most minor rules infraction.
Photo by Doug Belliveau |
The book spans the entire
history of NASCAR, from its humble beginnings at Daytona in
1949, right up through the 2002 season. Incidents involving
many of the most famous names in racing are discussed, such
as Smokey Yunick, Junior Johnson, Richard Petty, Dale
Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon.
With such a perceived high
degree of cheating, many opponents of stock car racing
discount NASCAR as a legitimate racing series. Conspiracy
theorists claim that the fix is in because the organization
cannot police itself with consistency. Members of the NASCAR
media (including me) and most NASCAR fans will tell you that
this is not the case. What is fascinating about Cheating is
that by referencing examples, it explains the fine line
between working within the rules and breaking them. Also,
the book does a remarkable job of highlighting how many
innovations came into being because of racer’s quest to push
the envelope. The stories of the birth of fuel cells, the
roll cage, body templates and the use of wind tunnels are
all woven seamlessly into the text.
The repeated theme throughout
the book is quite obvious: the more NASCAR tried to tighten
the reins, the more homework the teams had to do to get to
the front of the pack. In the early years, cheating wasn’t
really cheating because NASCAR had so few rules to break.
Race teams got away with flagrant performance boosters such
as hidden superchargers, extra weight that fell off the car
during the race and automatically lowering front ends. My
favorite story involved a race car that had hollowed out
frame cross members for storage of extra fuel. Can you
imagine driving around a racetrack with gasoline in the
frame of your car? That would be like driving a pipe bomb
around the track and waiting for it to ignite!
Over time, the NASCAR
organization evolved and became more sophisticated with its
inspection process. Originally, only the total weight of a
car was obtained, and inspections only took place before the
race. Today, weight is measured at each wheel, and
inspections take place all race weekend long. A handful of
templates were first used at Daytona in1967. Currently,
inspectors may use upwards of 30 templates at any given
race. You might not realize how formidable a task it is to
inspect 45-50 racecars down to an amazingly slim tolerance
on a race weekend.
|
Templates, templates, and more templates.
Photo by Doug Belliveau |
All the major scandals are here
for your perusal, including Junior Johnson’s infamous Yellow
Banana car that was chopped, Bill Elliott’s overly amazing
1985 season, Jimmy Spencer’s controversial plate race wins
in 1994 for McDonalds and Jeff Gordon’s 1998 Tiregate, in
which Jack Roush insisted that an undetectable illegal
chemical was being used to enhance tire performance.
I could write volumes about all
the wild and wacky things that have occurred over the past
53 years in NASCAR, but that would defeat the purpose of
getting a copy of this excellent book. The book is easy to
read and entertaining, without getting bogged down in too
much detail or technical jargon. For long-time fans, it
serves as a stroll down memory lane and provides answers to
some of those burning questions never answered years ago.
For new fans, or fans that never get to visit the garage,
the book provides a great deal of insight to the inner world
of NASCAR. Either way, this book is a must for any NASCAR
fan’s library.
The author can be contacted nascar@autoracing1.com
Go to
our
forums
to discuss this article
|
