So what should NASCAR do with its cheaters? Remembering that it is only cheating if you get caught, and innovation if you don't. What to do, what to do? There are various answers to this, but is there a clear cut solution? No, there is not.
Jenna Fryer of the AP offers up her own solution - suspend the driver for "x" amount of races depending on the infraction. Her article can be found here. Not a bad idea, but is it possible? Marc at Full Throttle does not think so.
I tend to agree. As long as there is a competition there will be someone trying to 'bend' the rules to gain an advantage and that holds true in any sport.
Let me offer my two cents here. If NASCAR truly wants to put and end to cheating (which I don't think will ever stop) then they must be more heavy handed in their penalties. The pros and cons of Jenna's solution are self-evident in that punishing the driver and suspending him, or her, is not good for the fans (who pay out large amounts of money to see their favourite drivers race) or to the driver, especially if the driver has no idea what 'modifications' might have been made to their car.
What NASCAR needs to do is hit the teams where it hurts, and hit them hard, like suspending not only the crew chief but the whole pit crew. Hand out larger points penalties for both the owner and driver that might jeopardize their run for The Chase or being in the Top 35 of Owner Points. Or how about what they did to Rusty Wallace back in the early 90's and tear-down the car, including the engine, in front of the other teams so they can see exactly what other 'innovations' that may have been created? Rusty has been quoted as saying that that particular incident set their engine program back about 2 years because then everyone knew what they were doing with their motors (especially with their intake manifold). If that doesn't deter you then I don't know what would.
After everything is said and done the best thing NASCAR can hope for is to decrease the amount of 'cheating' that is occurring because as long as there are people out there willing to sacrifice anything to win then there will always be people trying to bend and push the rules (or sometimes ignore them completely) in order to win.
