Feb 19, 2007

Let the Cheating Begin

The racing season is here, so can cheating be far behind? Well, no, this year cheating in NASCAR got off to a rip-roaring start as four crew chiefs were suspended even before the first points race of the year -- the Daytona 500 -- was even flagged off. That's the kind of acceleration, though, that we're having a hard time stomaching.

As we've noted in this space before, there is a tolerance for cheating in motor racing among both competitors and fans that you just don't see in other sports. The old adage is there are two kinds of racers -- those that have been caught cheating and those who haven't been caught yet. Getting an edge, whether by fiddling with aerodynamics or dropping a little Sterno into an engine, is seen as being the name of the game, even though such tactics are nothing better than cheating.

Frankly, even NASCAR takes a two-faced look at cheaters in its midst. NASCAR officials rattled the sabers by suspending Kasey Kahne's crew chief, Kenny Francis; Matt Kenseth's crew chief, Robbie Reiser; Scott Riggs' crew chief, Rodney Childers; and Elliott Sadler's crew chief, Josh Browne. Francis and Reiser were also hit with $50,000 fines, and Childers and Browne were smacked with $25,000 fines. Those might seem like stiff penalties, but in the world of NASCAR risking an extra $50,000 to win the Daytona 500 seems like a good gamble, so the fines don't provide much in the way of a deterrent. The fines are even more toothless when you consider that each of the crew chiefs was able to appeal the ruling and thus delay suspension until after the Daytona 500, which, of course, is the biggest race on the NASCAR Nextel Cup schedule.

If NASCAR were really serious about curbing cheating, it would suspend the drivers and their teams for the race -- not the crew chief. Talented as all four men are, the absence of Francis, Reiser, Childers and Browne would not have nearly the impact of the absence of Kahne, Kenseth, Riggs and Sadler. And whether or not any of the drivers knew about the cheating, they certainly stood to benefit from it.

So NASCAR rumbles into the 2007 season with cheatin' on its mind. We have to wonder, is it serious about integrity? Or is it just serious about the Almighty Buck?