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June 28, 2007

Hit Them Where It Hurts-Points Off for the Chase
By Dennis Michelsen
A $100,000 fine will not deter Hendrick Motorsports from searching for an advantage! The 100 points that they lost will be a footnote in the history of NASCAR long before it has any affect on the 2007 season. The talent pool at their company is so deep you could suspend half the team and still have them bounce back just fine. Hey NASCAR, if you want to hit Hendrick Motorsports where they hurt have point's penalties carry over to the Chase! Otherwise stop trying to con everyone with your new get tough policy.

Making It Up on the Way
Let's face it NASCAR wants to act tough but they will NEVER suspend one of their big name drivers for a race! So let's drop that nonsense in this discussion right now because if NASCAR were going to sit a driver for a race it would have been over the Kurt Busch pit road incident. Kurt claims to have been in total control of his car and senses when he drove close to Tony Stewart's car forcing a crewman to make a dash to safety. NASCAR loves to suspend Crew Chiefs and give fines. But for an organization that has made more right moves than wrong in their history but a 10,000 to one margin they seem to be making things up as they go on these penalties lately! Take 100 points away from a guy's points to start the Chase and you won't see anyone trying to slide one past you again NASCAR! Short of sitting someone down for a race that's the next best thing.

Yes There is a Precedent for This
NASCAR is already awarding double points for wins this season so why not double penalties too? A win during the first twenty-six races of the season carries more weight this year than a win in the final ten races. Don't believe me? Then do the math yourself! This year the Chase participants get seeded just by wins with each win worth ten additional points. Since wins carry over with an additional reward come Chase time why shouldn't penalties carry an extra burden too? Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson will not have their chances for the Championship hurt one bit by getting caught with an illegal front bumper. Obviously Hendrick Motorsports spent thousands of dollars testing this little advantage to find additional speed! So the $100,000 fine will be nothing to them either since they probably spent more than that to discover it was an advantage!

It's All Nonsense Anyway
How silly of Hendrick Motorsports trying to find more speed out of their cars. Who do they think they are anyway? Don't they realize that in today's NASCAR you have to do the politically correct thing and find more gas mileage? Perhaps if they had spent their money on a secret engine additive made from yak's milk that got them two more miles per gallon at Infineon Raceway they could have won the race! But those silly engineers at Hendrick tried to make their cars go faster instead! Shame on them for being ingenious and hooray for NASCAR pointing out that this was a waste of time. Great Crew Chiefs through the years have toiled and sacrificed and machined and rebuilt to find that little edge. That my friend is part of racing! It's a shame NASCAR doesn't reward ingenuity any more. Instead they hand out fines and point deductions that have no affect on the championship anyway! But don't fret Crew Chiefs, the more creative of your brethren get hired by NASCAR to police the sport! (If NASCAR had run the FBI back in the day Elliot Ness would have been ordered to hire Al Capone to stomp out the booze biz!)

Gaining an edge in any sport used to be what this whole crazy thing was all about. Now it is about marketing plans and evening the playing field. Do you think Richard Petty won an amazing 200 races by JUST being a great driver? Petty Enterprises worked harder than everyone else and it showed in championships and victories! Can you imagine if the Wood Brothers had not worked on their pit stops to gain that edge? Cut costs in racing by having NASCAR assign pit crews from the local senior center to pit the cars to take away that advantage that working hard to hone a top quality pit crew can give a team! Back in the day if you got beat you just went out and worked harder to build a better car for the next season! But those days of innovation and finding the edge is long gone I suppose. The new NASCAR is all about ridiculous press conferences to announce their new no tolerance standards, and then let everyone race! Either hit them where it hurts or take away points for the Chase or stop trying to BS everyone NASCAR.

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