I think that knaus has realized that jj is barely an average driver, that is the only way to get him to the front. so with the crime comes the punishment, about 50 points to start.
Yeah, Jeffy did beat my driver a lot, but he was also NASCAR's so-called "Golden Boy". NASCAR seem to prop him up a lot more than any other driver on the circuit for quite a few years. I think for awhile they banked on him also, meaning that because of Jeffy, NASCAR was able to bring in a larger base of fans therefore increasing their profits. So it was to NASCAR's advantage to have Jeffy win a lot of races. If it would have been more of a "good old boy" winning all those races, then the fan base wouldn't have grown nearly as fast. I think they wanted to try and compete with the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NCAA for the same fan base. NASCAR needed a young clean-cut, preppy type of guy to help bolster their image from one of good old boy, southern, backwood hicks to one of young, clean cut, english speaking, polite drivers. My two cents worth.
Pushing the envelope of what you can get away with is not something that's exclusive to NASCAR. (For example, I'd bet this exact same discussion will be going on in a baseball thread sometime in May.) There's just a grander history of bending rules there than in some other sports. You can discourage cheating by stiffening the penalties for getting caught, but it's too much a part of the culture to think it will ever be eradicated completely. (What's a stiff enough penalty to stop people from cheating? Jail time? Guantanamo? Siberia? Bamboo shoots under the fingernails? Forced exposure to Michael Bolton?) Besides, when it comes to pumping ratings, there's no such thing as too much drama.
In response to this thread, the penalty didnt fit the crime. Blaming Chad isnt the problem,put the onus on the guy who writes the checks. Owner pts.& driver pts. plus sit down (5) races. This just might get everybody`s attention. As long as Nascar insists on equality for car bodies,nothing is going to change.To bad its this way.
NASCAR turns a blind eye all the time. An example was two years ago when Jimmy Spencer and Kurt Busch got into it on the track. NASCAR suspended Spencer for the next race but did nothing to Busch. Reason? Busch was driving for Sharpie and the next race was the Sharpie 400.
Mike Helton (now the president of NASCAR) said a few years back that NASCAR was in the business of "Entertainment". My question is "Ah, Mike, what about the racing? Doesn't that count?" I thought NASCAR stood for racing not entertainment. It's too bad that NASCAR, like all other major sports has become a business. Maybe if they concentrated on just "Racing" the fans would be attracted because the focus is on racing and not entertainment. If the fans show up, then the bottom line would take care of itself. As for NASCAR turning a blind eye, well yeah in many ways they do. Like I said before, if you are in NASCAR's good graces, are a popular driver, or your sponsor has an upcoming race, then NASCAR tends to overlook whatever you might be guilty of. Dale Earnhardt was the best example of NASCAR turning a blind eye. Granted, Dale was a great driver and could drive the wheels off a race car, even the most ill-handling race car and still win, but if any other driver pulled what he did, they would have been suspended or fined or both. He was NASCAR for all those years.
My idea of racing would be to remove restrictor plates and let's see who can travel 500 miles the fastest
I don't see how this is any different than the NFLs stance on drug use. Testing on the NFL is a joke. 99% of tests are announced beforehand, hence the leagues amazingly low infraction rate. The fans want to see fast racing and big plays, so I guess this is all a fact of life as fans we have to accept or stop watching. Guess which one i bet we all pick.
Hey Black Hand, nice post. I must have missed the rule that says only those who like cheaters should join this discussion. If you limit your interaction to only people who love your sport regardless of its flaws, its possible you might get a little narrow minded. What do you think? (This is where you say you're not narrow minded, its all them other crazy folks who don't agree with me that are wrong).
JustGuessing: Fine. Find me another sport where the top level athletes don't routinely break the rules until they get caught.
rodgerd, That's a good question. You make a point that there are rule breakers in every sport. I guess what concerns me is how the sport itself deals with it. Some like football and baseball kind of look the other way with things like drugs, etc. But they now seem to be coming around (after congressional pressure). I don't get the same sense from stock car racing. You know what I mean? The closest thing I can think of is basketball, where they intentionally foul late in the came to gain an advantage, but the refs don't call intentional fouls unless it they are gruesomely flagerant.
So, NASCAR suspends the crew chief of one of the top teams in the sport for their biggest race of the season, and you don't get the feeling that the sanctioning body is doing anything? Strangely enough, I'm getting the feeling you really don't know much at all about stock car racing. You've already shat on this thread once; for the sake of consideration, just let it go. Is it really that hard for you to not participate in a thread about a sport you seem to have no interest in at all?
