Tony Stewart was 16 points from qualifying for the chase last year.
Tony Stewart was 16 points from qualifying for the chase last year.
chuck d wrote:
how big do you think the deterrent would be to a crew chief to know that if they were caught their team would get suspended? that's the kind of stuff you get fired for and don't get another job.
Exactly!
King Missile wrote:
50 points is still less than 1% of the total points for all of the top 10 teams. That is not severe.
wrong. after 26 of 36 races, the points are reset. the final points of the first place team is not an accurate depiction of the points they earned throughout the season.
50 points is a very severe penalty for the driver given that they likely had no idea what was going on with an arbitrary part of the car for qualifying. the only way a driver can cheat would be to say speed down pit lane, but that is a one lap penalty.
as a big fan of nascar (the only sport i follow other than track) i personally think the 50 driver points is ridiculous, however, history has shown that a crew chiefs presence at the track, while helpful, is not always needed, if he has assistants who know what's what (chad knaus suspension last year is a perfect example). however, perhaps by penalizing the innocent driver for a crew chiefs attempts at cheating will deter crew chiefs from doing it in the future.
The key word is "professional". With big money on the line, the temptation to cheat is great and I agree with your "Don't ask, don't tell" assessment. It happens in ALL sports. I always think of the Jim Rome line about winning in sports:
"If you're not cheating, then you're not trying."
Sad but true. I've often wondered how many athletes are either truly dumb or just don't want to know if they are cheating? It is not a stretch to believe that an athlete gets a "vitamin" from his coach or agent and then convinces himself it is truly a vitamin. Ingnorance is bliss.
chuck d wrote:
you obviously don't know what crew chiefs do. the comparison to agents/coaches isn't exactly apposite.
Indeed the breaches of the regulations were in the areas that the crew chiefs are responsible not the drivers so it was appropriate to penalise them. The comparison to agents was not apposite (unless the suspension was for something the agents are responsible for, e.g. payments)
For MtnDew: apposite 'Being of striking appropriateness and relevance; very applicable; apt.'
NASCAR is a horrible "sport" if it can even be considered one.
Waltrip was fined 100 points, his season is done before it started. Nice pick up Toyota.
Easy wrote:
Heres why 50pts is a punishment. Only the top 10 drivers get to go for the Championship. Those 10 drivers were separted by ~440 pts. 50 points could take a team that is in 5th or 6th and knock them out of a championship run. The winner of the Cup won by only 56pts. Plus there were a lot of teams within 50pts of 10th place
The infraction that happenned was very very minor (in Kahne's case he had the area ducktaped shut instead of capped). To lose your crew chief and be docked 50pts is very very severe. Its like not having your shirt tucked in on the starting line of a track race and being told your watch will be taken away (so you can't see splits) and you have to start 2000meters behind everyone else.
EWR wrote:
who cares, it's not a sport. a bunch on moonshiners driving the wrong way down the freeway bible thumping smoking marlboros wearing white hoods.
Ain't no draft they ever dodged. God bless them.
You're on the right path, sort of. Considering some of what Hermens and Rosa have done, they should be banished.
EWR wrote:
who cares, it's not a sport. a bunch on moonshiners driving the wrong way down the freeway bible thumping smoking marlboros wearing white hoods.
wow. 5 stereotypes in one sentence, nice work!
T-man wrote:
EWR wrote:who cares, it's not a sport. a bunch on moonshiners driving the wrong way down the freeway bible thumping smoking marlboros wearing white hoods.
wow. 5 stereotypes in one sentence, nice work!
Those are my idols man!
The first four to be punished (Kahne, Kenseth, Sadler and Riggs) were minor infractions that had little to do with the performance of the car. There decisions were poor and NASCAR is trying to send a message that they won't tolerate this from anyone by levying fairly stiff penalties. To put the point penalties in perspective, the most points you could lose in a single race is something like 186 (point difference between first and 43rd). Fifty points then is over a quarter of a race. waltrip's case baffles me. Reportedly they put jet engine fuel in the car! They lose 100 points for a team that is brand new and must qualify into the first five races at the very least. He likely will not even qualify for the Daytona 500 which is basically a death sentence for their team. If any of these teams were caught again this season, they likely would be sat down for a race (the ultimate punishment in NASCAR). I'm not sure there is any correlation one could make to track that would work for what a crew chief does for the team. It will hurt Kenseth the least since his team is the most experienced. Kahne and Riggs are still relatively new and will hurt the next most. Sadler is a veteran but the team he is driving for is new to him. This is bad for him. Waltrip's punishment will likely kill his chances of being decent this year.
EWR wrote:
whats the diff. hey jethro, fill er up with ethyl and check the fluids. it's not a sport. a bunch of illiterate yokels driving shit ameriKan made jalopys all married to their fat whale sisters or first cousins.
Oh dear, where to begin. Well, if you don't think its hard to drive a car for 4 hours in a 120degree cockpit at 200MPH, then I guess anyone could do it right? Illiterate Yokels? Well, those Illiterate yokels are some of the nicest people your sorry ass could ever meet, and alot of them donate money to various charities or create their own. I won't go into your last comment, but I'm sure judging by your attitude most Nascar guys have gotten more than yourself.
Grow up and learn about sports rather than make your own biased opinions.
Right on. That's what I'm saying! God Bless Tom Cruise!
The real joke is that Michael Waltrip's wife's name is.............Buffy!!
the drivers dont know whats going on with the rest of the car, besides making some suggestions as to what he feels the car needs, the crew chief is the only one that knows everything. if you go into one of the nextel shops, there are very few people that can go anywhere they want. my brother works in the engine dept. in one of the new toyota teams and he isnt allowed in all parts of the shop, and is sworn to secracy on the engine stuff.
auto racing is so different from running that it is impossible to compare the penalties. i race a pretty much stock class of cars, something like nextel cup was 25 years ago with stock frames etc. and there is so much grey area in the rules that we have an argument every week about something on someones car, now take a car as high tech as a nextel cup and the grey areas are endless in the rules, and rules can be interpreted so many different ways. a couple years ago my friend sent me pics from the car the team he worked for was going to run at daytona, it fit all the templets that nascar had for the bodies, yet if you looked close, there were parts that werent even close to looking like other cars. so is that illegal or legal? it fit the dimensions of the rules yet wasnt close and much more aerodynamic than nascar wanted.
in running you either took the drug or you didnt and the runner knows damn well if he did.
as far as michael waltrip i dont know if it was jet fuel, there use to be something where people used bleach or something you would think had nothing to do with making horsepower that made the air change inside the motor or something, it was a trick used in drag racing for awhile until they found a test to check the fuel mixture, or it might have been jet fuel, who knows but with the other infractions by the other crew chiefs it could be argued as finding a grey area in the rules, but with waltrip it was flat out cheating.
db
Waltrip is in!!!