If you keep up with NASCAR at all, you’ll know that last week’s race at Richmond was riddled with cheating. Clint Bowyer’s “innocent” spin followed by his and teammate Brian Vicker’s collective attempt to dive onto pit road and give up positions so that their third teammate Martin Truex Jr. could get into the chase. This caused wild card hopefuls Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon to miss the chase, where as before they were driving their guts out and were in positions to have the two wildcard spots They were all caught by NASCAR because they talked about it on the radio before doing it. Michael Waltrip Racing is given the biggest fine in the history of the sport. In addition Bowyer, Vickers, and Truex are all fined 50 drivers points (Bowyer should have been kicked out of the chase…but that’s just my opinion) This is enough to put Martin Truex out contention and bring Ryan Newman into the game. However, Jeff Gordon is still on the outside looking in.
But, as fate would have it, someone else was also cheating. A certain Joey Logano, who benefited from the Michael Waltrip Racing’s manipulation of the points to finish 10th instead of needing a wild card spot by the way. It has been reported that Logano’s team had a deal with another team in the last few laps where said other team would pull over and let Logano go by, giving him that last point needed to clinch a spot in the top 10.
If this is indeed the case, and NASCAR does indeed have convincing video footage and audio sound bytes to prove it, then a similar penalty should be levied against Logano and his team as well. It is the good and right thing to do under these circumstances. You could let it go earlier in the year, but not now. Logano needs to know that a spot in the chase is earned, not bought through last lap deals.
Cheating that is this open in NASCAR should not be tolerated, it’s bad for sponsors, and bad for racing. Look at what it has done for F1 for example. To be fair, NASCAR is cracking down on cheating, which should make the racing even better.
If you’re going to cheat, don’t do it on the radio where the important people can hear you. Do it in a team meeting or something.