Monday, May 14, 2018

COMMENTARY: Time For NASCAR To Toughen Up On Pre- And Post-Race Inspections


It’s time for NASCAR to sharpen its teeth.

In the aftermath of last Wednesday’s most recent slate of post-race penalties, it has become patently clear that the sanctioning body is failing to communicate effectively with its teams by issuing punishments that both penalize the guilty party and discourage others from committing similar violations in the future.

Following the race two weeks ago at Dover International Speedway, three of the Top-5 finishing machines were discovered to be outside NASCAR’s technical guidelines.

Clint Bowyer’s second-place finishing Ford received an L1 penalty for a rear window support that failed to keep the window rigid at all times. That penalty has become commonplace this season, and Bowyer’s Mike Bugarewicz-led team received the standard penalty of a $50,000 fine for the crew chief, a two-race suspension for car chief Jerry Cook and the loss of 20 driver and owner points.

Third-place Daniel Suarez was also busted for wonky rear window supports and received an identical sanction, with crew chief Scott Graves fined $50,000, car chief Todd Brewer suspended for two races and the team losing 20 driver and owner points.

Fifth-place finisher Kurt Busch received a post-race L1 penalty for a loose lug nut (crew chief Billy Scott fined $10,000) and Austin Dillon – the 26th-place finisher at Dover – received a pre-race L1 penalty for a front splitter violation. Crew chief Justin Alexander was fined $25,000 and car chief Greg Ebert was suspended for one race.

One would suspect that penalties of that magnitude would instantaneously capture the attention of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series garage.

One would be incorrect.

This past weekend – just days after Wednesday’s announcement – a significant portion of the field failed to clear pre-qualifying inspection at Kansas Speedway. Six different drivers – Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Michael McDowell, Matt DiBenedetto and Timmy Hill – never made it to the qualifying grid, despite the fact that NASCAR delayed the start of time trials by nearly 15 minutes to accommodate repeated inspection failures by those six teams, and others. Three additional drivers -- Kyle Larson, Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray – made single laps in the opening round of qualifying after repeated inspection failures, then opted out of Round Two, saying they were “uncomfortable” with their cars. At least one of those drivers later admitted that the prospect of starting Saturday night’s race on virtually new tires also played a role in his team’s decision to withdraw.

NASCAR’s response to this continued malfeasance was to hand out the exact same penalties they have assessed multiple times in the past, apparently hoping for a different result.

Last week’s Wonky Window penalties had absolutely no impact on the NASCAR Garage. If you doubt that, just wait until Wednesday, when NASCAR hands down penalties to Kyle Larson’s Chip Ganassi Racing team for a set of carbon-copy window supports that failed to do their required jobs Saturday night, just as Bowyer’s and Suarez’s failed to do at Dover. Just as Kevin Harvick did at Las Vegas and just as Chase Elliott’s did at Texas.

That’s five Wonky Windows in 12 races. If flexible rear windows hurt performance – rather than helped it – do you think it would take 12 weeks for teams to solve the problem? Absolutely not. Teams continue to build Wonky Windows for two specific reasons. Because they work (making the race car faster), and because NASCAR has not yet handed down a penalty that even begins to offset the boost in performance those windows provide.

Until those two facts change, conduct in the garage will not improve. And to that end, it’s time for NASCAR to ratchet-up the sanctions ad put a stop to Wonky Window Wednesday.

It’s time for the sanctioning body to take a nostalgic approach, investing in a few boxes of Sawz-All blades and simply cutting off the offending pieces like they did in the old days, before putting the illegal technology on public display for all to see.

Got an illegally modified splitter on the front of your hot rod? We’ll just hack it off – along with a few inches of the front valence, for good measure – leaving your team with the unenviable option of either rebuilding the race car on Friday afternoon, or rolling out the backup.

Failed to make it through pre-qualifying inspection? Instead of slapping your hand and banishing you (and your brand new tires) to the back of the pack for the start of the race, why not do what NASCAR threatened to do a few weeks ago, forcing the offending teams to serve pass-through penalties on the opening lap of the race, leaving them a lap or more in arrears before the event has barely begun?

Come up short in your post-race visit to the NASCAR R&D Center? Prepare to lose everything you earned this weekend -- every point, every dollar and every bit of playoff qualification -- before sustaining additional post-race fines, point penalties and suspensions. You'll even be bringing back the trophy.

And for God’s sake, can we please stop delaying the start of qualifying until the rule-breakers are through messing around? Instead of drawing a line in the competitive sand and refusing to accommodate offending teams, NASCAR sends the exact opposite message.

“Take your time, boys. Break all the rules you want. We (and the fans) will wait.”

As the lengthening list of repeat offenders clearly indicates, NASCAR’s punitive status quo is not working. The sanctioning body’s intended message is not getting through, and our sport continues to be seen as a place where everybody cheats and nobody cares.

It’s time for the boys in Daytona Beach to man up and begin swinging a bigger stick, retaking control of the garage area from a group of competitors that lately resembles a table full of recalcitrant children, refusing to eat their carrots.

33 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:22 PM

    Hey I don't like carrots either. BTW, great article and it is about time for a change.

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  2. Nascar has to kick some butt. I would hate to see my driver's crew chief (the 4 car) doing something stupid again. I don't believe in parking the cars. Too much money is spent putting all those decals on the car, but something needs to be done to get all this cleaned up.

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  3. I must say its time for real penalties and an end to the hypocrisy. If teams think nothing of the monetary penalties expect no sympathy from me regarding alleged financial difficulties for the teams.
    And quit trying to blame the process, nascar doesnt build the cars.

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  4. I 100% Agree and take away any stage points also

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  5. loosen up the rule book, let the guys be innovative and only police the important stuff like safety, tires and engines

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  6. loosen up the rulebook, let the guys innovate again and only police the important stuff like safety, engines and tires

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    Replies
    1. That's what they have done, to SHR cars, etc,...

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  7. Asking the squishes running NASCAR these days to man up is pretty funny.

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  8. Anonymous4:37 PM

    Love your opinion! Really wish Nascar would penalize them NOW instead of waiting for the 18 & 11 teams to get caught!

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  9. I think it's time to park the cars for these repeat offenders. It appears parking the crew chiefs and fining them doesn't have any effect, but I bet their sponsors might get pissed about paying to have their name on a car that's stuck back at Mooresville. It's either that or they make the teams rent the braces for the rear windows and hand them out at tech and watch them get installed then tag them. I like how Larson blamed Blaney hitting him and causing his braces to break. Wasn't that big of a hit, I was in the stands and saw that one

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  10. Park them for a race. Sponsors would soon put an end to the practice of “wonky windows” and other shenanigans.

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  11. How have so many cars made it through prerace checks, but then in post-race a wonky window support is found? It's not like that is something that can be changed mid-race...

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    Replies
    1. Douglas A Hansen9:31 PM

      These window braces are designed to fail as pressure is put on them by the car as it reaches speed.then pop right back into place as the car slows so it can't be detected in pre or post race inspection.

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  12. Anonymous5:05 PM

    Disqualify the cars.

    Not ready to qualify means not ready to race..

    Make them sit..

    Frank Ruiz

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  13. National Association of Stock Car Racing, NASCAR, needs to change their name. Laser inspections and IROC type set ups are killing NASCAR.

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    Replies
    1. What evidence do you have for that? How are they "IROC type setups?" What you're doing is denying all accountability by the raceteams, and that doesn't work.

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  14. Anonymous6:51 PM

    If you don't qualify you don't race.

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  15. Anonymous6:55 PM

    If you don't qualify you don't race.It's time to get tough.

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  16. Dave, great words but logic and common sense haven't applied here for some time.

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  17. Pre race violation.. no practice, no qualifying.. start tail end. Fail postvrace inspection.. loose all points and money from the race Plus 30 more points.. as post-race inspection failing indicates that you actively modified car after pre-race inspection.

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  18. Don't let them race if they fail inspection. Take everything away if they fail post race inspection. That's the only thing I can see that will put a stop to this circus!

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  19. As you've said. Remove all benefits of their being is the race. The only thing they respect ate points and position. As an aside, make them use 3/4 lexan rear windows that are impossible to wonk sitting on 1/2 steel tubing. All they're doing is setting themselves up for even more draconian rules.

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  20. Anonymous8:21 AM

    Long time Nascar watcher and fan, in my opinion watching Nascar is getting almost to the point of watching F1. So much scrutiny on the cars and about 6 cars on any week have the chance to win. Let the boys get back to being able to build race cars not identical models of each other.

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  21. Anonymous10:04 AM

    let em run what they brung

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    Replies
    1. Pete Pistone and Danny Myers addressed why that can't work - give teams something, they take more, keep breaking the rulebook, and thus nothing is solved. Run what you briung has never solved anything.

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  22. I say deduct point(s) from the drivers each time they fail inspection. And if one fails to qualify, make them run laps around the track to scuff up the tires. Or (and I know this will never happen but is fun to think about) hook 'em up to the Draggin' Wagon and pull them backwards around the track a time or two to rubber it up.

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  23. Anonymous11:07 AM

    Flash and Linda are right. We go to see the race not picky inspections. Too many rules that nobody understands anyway. I buy a ticket to see my driver race....not start from the rear. The rest of you quys are missing the point. Probably has a lot to do with diminished viewing.

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  24. Anonymous12:05 PM

    Continue to fine them ever increasing amounts, suspend crew chiefs and team engineers. But instead of just moving them to the rear of the field, have them start the race being scored 1 lap down immediately. Second offense, 2 laps down. And they can not get the lap back via the "lucky dog". They have to earn the lap back as in the past.

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  25. Mark M8:42 PM

    Park em the next race. That's the only way to put a stop to it.

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  26. Anonymous6:12 AM

    And now for something completely different.

    I just read an obituary on Tom Wolfe. and not one mention of Wolfe's story on Junior Johnson, "The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!" ( a version of that story is at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/twolfe.html )

    An unlikely pairing was Tom Wolfe (think New York City elite-type writer) and Junior Johnson.

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  27. Sometimes you just want to scream loudly, JUST STOP EFFEN CHEATING! The fans are getting tired of it, it brings nothing good to the sport nationally or locally. It has become a joke every Tues or Weds just waiting for the cheating report to come out. The lug nut thing is just a joke now. But, overt cheating has really got to stop.

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  28. Anonymous7:48 PM

    It used to be the crew chief was suspended. Now we are suspending the car chief. They have become the sacrificial lamb, the team can get by on race day without the car chief. Since they aren't getting the message, after repeat offenses, suspend the DRIVER for the race. Driver usually has no control over things like this, but it might make the team think long and hard about trying something. Let the team scramble to find a replacement, and explain THAT to the sponsors. Driver doesn't race: no points. Monetary fines aren't working. Win as a team, lose as a team

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