NASCAR should have kept lid on Hendrick Motorsports story
More than a week later, I still don’t understand why NASCAR made an issue out of its inspection of the No. 48 and No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets after the Sprint Cup race at Dover.
Since the inevitable has happened, and some fans are still pointing the finger at those two teams for bending the rules, it’s time to point the finger at NASCAR.
To recount the issue, NASCAR officials announced Oct. 2 that after the Dover race, they had reinspected Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet and Mark Martin’s No. 5 Chevy at NASCAR’s R&D Center in Concord, N.C. Both cars passed, although they were right at the limit of tolerance in terms of template measurements. Johnson’s car had been taken to the R&D center because he’d won the race, while Martin’s car had been the random car chosen for inspection.
Officials for both teams were invited to talk with NASCAR officials to learn that, yes indeed, their cars had passed and were perfectly legal. They were warned, however, that the tolerances were so close – by a tiny fraction of an inch – that any anomaly in the future could create a situation in which the cars were out of compliance.
This, I believe, was a nice courtesy on NASCAR’s part, warning the teams of a possible future violation, one that would obviously result in a penalty and could cost either team a shot at the Sprint Cup championship.
That was a textbook way to handle the situation.
Then, Oct. 2 at Kansas Speedway, NASCAR officials publicly announced their findings, that both cars had barely passed inspection.
“There was no room to breathe,” Sprint Cup Director John Darby said.
The results of NASCAR’s announcement were very predictable. Fans who love to hate the Hendrick juggernaut immediately suspected that the teams had actually been caught cheating, but had caught a break from NASCAR. In fact, there were more than a few competitors in the garage area who suspected the same thing.
NASCAR’s announcement was wrong on a couple of levels. First, the issue was a distraction to both teams at Kansas.
"Believe me, if they weren't legal they wouldn't have been released,” Johnson said. “I hate that it's drawing speculation and concern, but the cars passed tech and here we are.”
More than the distraction and PR problems it caused for both teams at Kansas, by making the issue public, NASCAR has raised a cloud of suspicion over both teams. If either Martin or Johnson goes on to win the Sprint Cup championship, there will be naysayers who claim that they bent the rules to reach their goal. Those critics will be
small in number, but will make up for that in their outspokenness.
The fact remains that the cars were legal. One could argue those two teams were doing their jobs at an exceptional level, using every bit of room available to them within the rules to tweak their cars. There were obvious questions NASCAR didn’t address last weekend: How many other teams are pushing the limits to that extent each week? A handful? Most of them? Or how close are the other teams pushing the limits? And If the other teams are not using every inch of the rulebook given to them, why not?
Surely, NASCAR officials could have kept the lid on this situation. If the goal was to stir up controversy and earn some media coverage, then, mission accomplished. But that’s a high price to pay for such a short-term gain when, in the eyes of some fans and even competitors, the No. 48 and No. 5 teams will be under suspicion the rest of the season.
