Another Viewpoint Archives
Debbi Willis, Daw613@bigfoot.com
Rules and Integrity,
A Natural Honor System
Rules are made to keep order and fairness in any given situation in
which more than two people are going to participate. In all good
organizations, rules or by-laws are established to keep order. Without
order, chaos reigns. Nascar is no different and when competition is
involved, it's quite the feat to keep all the rules enforced fairly,
consistently and constantly. And, sometimes, Nascar is fairly consistent!
A Nascar official is assigned to every team's pit, and there are officials at
the entrance and exit to pit row and a multitude of other officials who
oversee all the other aspects involved in Nascar racing. Over 40 teams in
the Winston Cup circuit alone requires a strong hand to maintain the order
and keep the fairness in the sport. No doubt, it's not an easy task with
some teams seeking that special "edge".
At Atlanta, Mike Skinner won the BGN race but had to appeal the
victory when in the post race inspection his engine was discovered to have
NON-pre-approved heads. The heads themselves weren't so much illegal as they
had not been pre-approved (per the rules) by Nascar's officials . The appeal
made history when overturned in Skinner's favor, something Nascar supposedly
has never done before! Yet, I couldn't help but think it somewhat unfair to
the driver when his support crew doesn't get something approved and he drives
to victory with the illegal condition. Not exactly the driver's fault
really, so should he be penalized with the loss of the victory? A fine may
have been more in order and wouldn't have been as complicated or newsworthy.
My guess is the heads have been approved since then, but Skinner's first
victory is tarnished with the incident.
At California, due to miscommunications to pit for a repair Dale
Jarrett discovered that the pits were not open, so he drove straight through
and was still penalized to the end of the field after working so hard to
regain positioning in the field. DJ should never have entered the pits, but
when the mistake was realized, surely, his pass would have been satisfactory.
However, Nascar never seems to miss a beat with DJ and his fans know it!
Self-proclaimed gray areas, excessively snakey (holds more fuel in
the route) fuel lines, and suspension rule challenges are just a few of the
areas that are blatant cheating the rules for an edge. Accusations of tire
treatments, engine treatments, and most notably the flared fender incident
plagued Jeff Gordon last year while he appeared to dominate the whole season.
He laughed and joked about those accusations at the awards banquet, yet
this season hasn't been so kind to Gordon. Even though his team is still
practically the fastest and best pit crew in Nascar, he's struggling with a
lot of the regular racing incidents that most drivers usually deal with that
he's breezed on by in the past for whatever reasons!
Yet, at Richmond, I've got to wonder if Nascar literally looked the
other way when Gordon pitted TWICE (laps 210 and 243) with the leaders while
being a lap (actually multiple laps) down car? Could it be that Ray was
gambling on Nascar and everyone else being so used to Gordon on the lead lap,
that he chose to pit Jeff illegally twice and Nascar never
noticed or chose to look the other way? Or, was the penalty of no consequence
to them but the prospect of getting the car better positioned was a better
gamble? Surely, it's baffling when other drivers are immediately caught in
various rule infractions and swiftly dealt with accordingly! As always,
though, this was a Ray decision and a Ray directive..... not really the
drivers fault, albeit he's aware of his position and the rules in this case!
What would make it easier for everybody would be the honor system in
every team. Don't push the limits, obey the rules, clear new requests/parts
with the proper authority, don't try to slip one by anyone. There's nothing
admirable about cheating. Baseball allows stealing bases, but no where in
the rules does Nascar allow any rules stretching. Just because most
everyone does it at one time or another doesn't make it right. The honor
system wouldn't cause everyone to watch each other like hawks trying to catch
any wrongdoing. Then, the only rules infractions would be honest mistakes,
like DJ at California on a closed pit row, (can't call multiple mis-pitting
an honest mistake, though). The fans would have the best of it all too: good
strong competition with athletes as good examples, and fair rule enforcement
for EVERYONE.
Rules and Integrity,
A Natural Honor System
Rules are made to keep order and fairness in any given situation in which more than two people are going to participate. In all good organizations, rules or by-laws are established to keep order. Without order, chaos reigns. Nascar is no different and when competition is involved, it's quite the feat to keep all the rules enforced fairly, consistently and constantly. And, sometimes, Nascar is fairly consistent! A Nascar official is assigned to every team's pit, and there are officials at the entrance and exit to pit row and a multitude of other officials who oversee all the other aspects involved in Nascar racing. Over 40 teams in the Winston Cup circuit alone requires a strong hand to maintain the order and keep the fairness in the sport. No doubt, it's not an easy task with some teams seeking that special "edge".
At Atlanta, Mike Skinner won the BGN race but had to appeal the victory when in the post race inspection his engine was discovered to have NON-pre-approved heads. The heads themselves weren't so much illegal as they had not been pre-approved (per the rules) by Nascar's officials . The appeal made history when overturned in Skinner's favor, something Nascar supposedly has never done before! Yet, I couldn't help but think it somewhat unfair to the driver when his support crew doesn't get something approved and he drives to victory with the illegal condition. Not exactly the driver's fault really, so should he be penalized with the loss of the victory? A fine may have been more in order and wouldn't have been as complicated or newsworthy. My guess is the heads have been approved since then, but Skinner's first victory is tarnished with the incident.
At California, due to miscommunications to pit for a repair Dale Jarrett discovered that the pits were not open, so he drove straight through and was still penalized to the end of the field after working so hard to regain positioning in the field. DJ should never have entered the pits, but when the mistake was realized, surely, his pass would have been satisfactory. However, Nascar never seems to miss a beat with DJ and his fans know it!
Self-proclaimed gray areas, excessively snakey (holds more fuel in the route) fuel lines, and suspension rule challenges are just a few of the areas that are blatant cheating the rules for an edge. Accusations of tire treatments, engine treatments, and most notably the flared fender incident plagued Jeff Gordon last year while he appeared to dominate the whole season. He laughed and joked about those accusations at the awards banquet, yet this season hasn't been so kind to Gordon. Even though his team is still practically the fastest and best pit crew in Nascar, he's struggling with a lot of the regular racing incidents that most drivers usually deal with that he's breezed on by in the past for whatever reasons!
Yet, at Richmond, I've got to wonder if Nascar literally looked the other way when Gordon pitted TWICE (laps 210 and 243) with the leaders while being a lap (actually multiple laps) down car? Could it be that Ray was gambling on Nascar and everyone else being so used to Gordon on the lead lap, that he chose to pit Jeff illegally twice and Nascar never noticed or chose to look the other way? Or, was the penalty of no consequence to them but the prospect of getting the car better positioned was a better gamble? Surely, it's baffling when other drivers are immediately caught in various rule infractions and swiftly dealt with accordingly! As always, though, this was a Ray decision and a Ray directive..... not really the drivers fault, albeit he's aware of his position and the rules in this case!
What would make it easier for everybody would be the honor system in every team. Don't push the limits, obey the rules, clear new requests/parts with the proper authority, don't try to slip one by anyone. There's nothing admirable about cheating. Baseball allows stealing bases, but no where in the rules does Nascar allow any rules stretching. Just because most everyone does it at one time or another doesn't make it right. The honor system wouldn't cause everyone to watch each other like hawks trying to catch any wrongdoing. Then, the only rules infractions would be honest mistakes, like DJ at California on a closed pit row, (can't call multiple mis-pitting an honest mistake, though). The fans would have the best of it all too: good strong competition with athletes as good examples, and fair rule enforcement for EVERYONE.