On Tuesday, a three-member NASCAR appeals panel upheld a penalty NASCAR handed down to Sprint Cup Series team owner Rick Hendrick’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team after that team failed an inspection prior to this year’s running of the Daytona 500.
The Hendrick team in question, with five-time series champion driver Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus, was found with illegal C-posts (the area of sheet metal connecting the rear quarter panel to the roof) during the inspection well before the running of the Daytona 500.
Knaus was fined $100,000 and suspended for six races, car chief Ron Malec was also handed a six-race suspension, and Johnson was docked 25 points in the Sprint Cup standings.
Hendrick will now take his efforts to have the punishment changed to the final level of appeal, pleading his case to NASCAR chief appellate officer John Middlebrook.
It’s no surprise that Hendrick will take the appeal as far as he can, though the reality is, he should be celebrating the fact that he operates in a sport where the punishments that come with cheating have little teeth in the big picture.
The time has come for NASCAR to put some true bite behind punishment. If you want to stop the crime make the consequences so dire nobody but the craziest or most daring would chance the punishment. That means get rid of the crew chief suspensions or car chief suspensions or silly monetary fines. The only real way to get the message across today is for NASCAR to suspend a team’s driver.
In every walk of life, be it sports or otherwise, punishment is supposed to not only be a penalty for committing an act outside of accepted standard rules or laws, but also should stand as a deterrent for committing unacceptable acts again, not only for those committing the initial act but also for those watching.
In society people understand if you commit a crime and get caught it comes with consequences, with punishment. If there was no punishment we’d likely all be out robbing banks. Therein lies the deterrent factor.
But what happens when you create a system where punishment really doesn’t stand as a deterrent? That is the system NASCAR has created.
Before this season Knaus had been penalized nine times for various infractions as a crew chief and suspended three times. In 2006, Johnson won the Daytona 500, with Knaus under suspension from the team for violations. The team went on that year to win its first Sprint Cup Series championship. The last suspension for Knaus came in 2007, and the team went on to win its second consecutive championship, despite the Knaus suspension.
One of NASCAR’s most penalized cheaters also has more Sprint Cup Series championships than any other crew chief currently in the garage. What message does that send to others working in the garage? It says cheating pays, and it pays well. If we all knew we could be multi-millionaires for going to jail, wouldn’t we all want to do a pinch? The culture created by NASCAR with weak punishment is one that says ‘Keep on punishing us over and over, it doesn’t scare us one bit.’
Sure, NASCAR has long been a bastion where cheating is considered an accepted part of the sport, even a badge of honor for those that do it better than anybody else. But the message NASCAR should be sending today is that cheating will not be accepted, and more importantly, it will come with true punishment.
Where is the teeth in suspending a crew chief? In today’s world, the technology exists for a crew chief to be sitting in an airport in Dubai directing his team in Darlington. Money? Money means nothing to guys who gas up private jets in the way the average Joe fills the tank on his Corolla.
And points? Well, NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship has taken much of the sting away from a points penalty. Does anybody really think Jimmie Johnson isn’t going to make up that 25-point deficit and qualify for the Chase for the Championship? And then, the points are refigured and essentially that points penalty doesn’t exist any longer.
Though, the fact is, NASCAR is afraid to offer true punishment. NASCAR is afraid of sitting its stars out. It’s been that way since day one in the sport. NASCAR has always had a philosophy that the stars must be in the show. That’s why for years there were provisionals offered, free passes into the event for the sport’s biggest names. That’s why today the sport has the ridiculous top-35 rule, which has made race qualifying an exercise nearly devoid of competition in the Sprint Cup Series.
Sometimes in the PGA, Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson don’t make the cut. And guess what, the PGA doesn’t collapse because of it. Sometimes in the NBA Kobe Bryant or LeBron James are hurt and don’t play, it hardly puts the league on the brink of folding.
Would a segment of fans be upset if their driver was suspended for an event they planned on attending? Sure they would. So what, life goes on and they’re probably still going to attend the race.
It’s time for NASCAR to grow up and realize to stop cheating the sport needs to create a true deterrent system and having a team face the possibility that its driver could be suspended is the only thing that could do that.
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13 Responses to Time For NASCAR To Get Serious And Hand Out Real Punishment In The Sprint Cup Series
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You’re right, but major sponsors won’t allow a leading driver to be suspended. Lowes’ $15-20 million investment in the 48 team probably buys them a vote in NASCAR ‘sanctions.’
maybe NASCAR should look at a person’s or teams history in the cheating department and make the punishment fit like in the real word for repeat offenders,seems like it worked at the world series in florida this year
if the driver does something to get suspended the he gets suspended. when its a crew chief ownwer or who ever they get suspended .you don’t want to muddy that up it will get way to slippery.
From what I understand the problem areas were not discovered during any kind of inspection. It was discovered by some NASCAR official walking by and did not like the c-posts and ordered them removed. The car was never presented for inspection and therefore I think the fine is excessive. In the legal world this case would not hold up in court and would thrown out or onsmissed. Comeon, a 100K fine for something someone thinks is wrong. We were not given the true store and I don’t it happened as you wrote.
This isint a one time deal for the 48 Team. It’s year after year! There is a saying in racing (not just NASCAR) that your not cheating until you get cought, This team has been cought over and over agian.Lets see the driver get suspended for six weeks also. Its the way it happens at the tracks across America that produce these “stars”.
Good point Phil. But perhaps that is a good thing. Maybe the sponsors would then get into the ear of the car owner letting them know the team better not try any of this funny business, afterall we the sponsor are investing heavy amounts to make you competitive.
Rather than the driver, the team should not be allowed to compete that weekend. If the cheating is found before the race. If a major infraction is found after the race, then the team should loose whatever points that they earned for that race. If they won, then they should be stripped of the trophy and award money. This would have a drastic effect on sponsership. If a driver, like Johnson were not allow, and/or the team lost a weeks worth of points this would be a great deterent to cheating.
As for the current problem, if what is being said about the car is correct, that it had been in all of last years events with no problems and no changes to the car have occurred, then I think that there should be no penalty.
If the driver is at fault I could see what your suggesting. But when it’s the car construtor then the fines and penalties need to be handed to them. One problem is that the giants have people to be put in place if that occures. The smaller team don’t so yes it’s harder on them.I really can’t understand where fans feel that the driver is to blame when there’s a good possablity he or she may not have the car until it rolls off the trailer. Understandable if something goes down on the track or even the pits,then the driver is in control so yes fines an whatever else mother nascar decides should happen. So what part of NO are you having a hard time understanding? A sincere L&M fan from back in the day GOOO NEWT!!!
YOU ARE ACTING LIKE NASCAR IS A REAL SPORT!!!
If you really want to deter them from crossing the line when it is a major infraction then suspend the entire team from competition. If you just suspend the driver I will get a back up driver for the race and he is guaranteed to get in because the team is in the top 35 in points. If everything I heard is true and it was never under NASCAR templates, the inspector just didn’t like it then I feel Chad played within the rules as it is a judgement call on the officials part.
Everyone is allfired up about Knaus being such a cheater. My take is that NASCAR knows he is one of the smartest guys in the garage and they watch him like a hawk. So naturally they are likely to find more wrong the more they watch. I’m not defending what he does, just observing that NASCAR is smart enough to watch him and the more they do the more they are likely to find wrong. I’d be willing to bet that if they paid half as much attention to other crew chiefs, they’d also be losing points and paying fines. Look at Darian Grubb last year. His own driver tells anyone who would listen in August that they don’t belong in the Chase. All of a sudden he figures he needs another job for next year and like magic within a month they start winning half the Chase races and the eventually championship. I’m normally not a conspiracy theorist, but how exactly does that happen, and don’t you think NASCAR might have overlooked what was going on there realizing that everyone was so sick of Johnson winning every year, that it would benefit the sport if Stewart finally broke his streak. I bet if Johnson had any where near a whiff at the title last year, NASCAR would have busted Knaus for something during the Chase.
What is happoening to Knaus is no different that what NASCAR did to Gary Nelson in the 80′s (until they hired him) or Smokey Yunick in the 50′s. Being a dictatorship of sorts, it’s in NASCAR’s best interest to not be outsmarted by their competitors. As long as Hendrick can shmooze the sponsors, protect his image and pay the fines, the advantages he gains when they don’t get caught far outweighs the penalties they pay when they do, at least from a monetary perspective, and money more than anything else drives this sport.
“Time For NASCAR To Get Serious And Hand Out Real Punishment In The Sprint Cup Series”
Why limit real punishment to the Sprint Cup Series?
What happened at the IceBreaker last year was deplorable. There is no deterrent. The extremely well-funded team kept the win, the fine was only $500 out of several thousand dollar winnings, and the points penalty was not a major factor. That team laughed all the way to the bank with several thousand dollars. No reason not to run a huge carburetor. Heck, the entire field should show up with huge carburetors for the IceBreaker next month. The precedent shows there is no reason not to cheat, or every reason to cheat.
Points and suspensions overturned….Knaus should sue Nascar for discrimination and Profiling. Its like getting a speeding ticket because the cop knows that somtimes you drive fast…except today he doesnt have a radar gun, but still his best guess is you were speeding.