"The Lash of NASCAR Justice--Car of Tomorrow Style"

• Both of Rick Hendrick's top teams (24--Jeff Gordon/Steve Letarte; 48--Jimmie Johnson/Chad Knaus) were whacked 100 owner/100 driver points...and hit up for a $100,000 fine. Mr. Letarte and Mr. Knaus won't have to fight traffic at a Nextel Cup event until August 15th when they return to work at Michigan.
• The rules that they violated are NASCAR rules, and not easily available for inspection by observers such as yourselves. Mike Helton, NASCAR President told me one time at Daytona at a public news conference, that the rule book was a proprietary document and wasn't made available (like the National Football League, Major League Baseball, NCAA Sports, etc. It makes John Darby's job (Nextel Cup series director) even more difficult--I give Darby style points for trying.
• This business fosters an attitude that the "rules are what we say they are", even though they are in print somewhere. Another famous "sporting" organization has a rule book, too.
• So I guess that the Car of Tomorrow rules are like "Wrestlemania" and the standard car rules are like "Friday Night Smackdown".
• Again, when you have an organization with some sporting elements and more entertainment elements, the entertainment elements will win out, because they bring in the most money and can be manipulated to produce drama. What would have been dramatic about Jeff Gordon winning at Infineon Raceway at Sears Point?

"Winged Wonder" Bombs at Sears Point

Gordon, Johnson and teams about to taste the lash of NASCAR Justice

Doubtless you've heard that the Nextel Cup series point leader, Jeff Gordon, and the defending series champ, Jimmie Johnson were not allowed to qualify their "Cars of Tomorrow" at Infineon Raceway at Sears Point because the cars didn't pass NASCAR pre-qualifying inspection. Seems the Hendrick braintrust of Chad Knaus and Steve Letarte interpreted rules on the right front fender dimensions differently than did NASCAR. This situation got me thinking:

• When they first introduced the cars, the NASCAR powers-that-be bragged about having RFID (radio frequency ID chips) on the chassis, and that there were nine (count 'em) laser measurements that would insure uniformity. Are Hendrick Motorsports lasers less accurate than NASCAR's?
• Or is this a return to a historical use of the inspection process, to try to level the playing field? Throughout NASCAR history, the "room of doom" has been used to keep big-mouthed drivers quiet, and negate advantages found by team engineers worthy of the name (the late Smokey Yunick would have sided with both Knaus and Letarte), which might have tilted the balance of competition to those teams. Just to remind you, the Hendrick Racing team has won all of the Car of Tomorrow races except for Dover, where Martin Truex won. It is not called the "Room of Doom" for nothing.
• Or is this a way to generate publicity, by handicapping the series' most successful active road course driver?
• If in fact it was a violation of such epic proportion, than why weren't the teams banned from the NASCAR garage area, and told to go home?

A "smackdown" moment, to be sure.

"Too Much Hype"

We join you from the infield at Daytona...where we are just steps away from the "Room of Doom"...and in sight of race control where some wags insist that the "call"** is about to be made.

Who'd benefit from a call**:

Juan Pablo Montoya--Hispanic connection, starts 36th, he'd be the big story with winning both ends of Speedweeks

Tony Stewart--a win would complete his quest and perhaps make up for missing the "Chase" in 2006

Mark Martin--part timer...likely the best of the 43 drivers never to have won a 500, would give the Army brass here a reason for a "HOOAH"

David Gilliland--Butch's son would sure enjoy the notoriety for the win; he missed the usual Daytona 500 polewinner buzz. A rookie winning the 500....

Michael Waltrip--his "scandal" got more notice for NASCAR than what might normally happen. The actions belie the words spoken about integrity...so all the "drama" could be the linch pin for a nice little Machievellian scheme.

**--For the record: The vaunted "call" is supposedly made by NASCAR to the "race winner" before the race, letting them know it is their turn to win. In practice, it would be difficult, since EVERY team member would have to be "gagged" so as not to leak the information.

I do not believe NASCAR pre-ordains a winner. I do believe that the entertainment aspect does lend credence to the theory that the sanctioning body can influence events in general to promote said entertainment.

Paul Kaminski

2/18/2007