With some of the recent incidents we’ve seen with cheating, namely the Front Row/bleeder valve situation, an interesting dilemma was brought up to me by Journo. Before I get into it, I just want to say that this is completely hypothetical. I can’t say I’ve ever actually heard of this happening. Anyway, back to the dilemma. Lets say for instance that you work for a race team. Your crew chief comes to you and says I need you to do something to the car that isn’t exactly within the rules. He knows you may be uncomfortable doing it, so he lets you know in so many words that if you don’t do what he’s asking, you might be looking for a new job. So what do you do? Cheat, or get fired?
In racing, there is always a ton at stake. For guys near the top, there is always that pressure to push through and win races and championships. At the other end, some teams are just trying to make races. In either case, this pressure can make people do crazy things. We’ve seen really blatant cheating like bleeder valves and jet fuel, all the way to small cheating, like slightly off bodies and re-arranged weight. Some are even of the mind that “if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t trying.”
It seems that the idea of cheating in sports has been a major issue over the last five years or so. And what pushed it to the forefront was the use of performance enhancing drugs by those in traditional sports. Cheating however, is nothing new in NASCAR. Guys have been working in those “gray areas” ever since the first cars took to the track. Some of the best stories are those of Smokey Yunick and his “innovations.”
Coming back though to my original point, what would you do? Do you cheat like your crew chief wants, or risk losing your job?
I’m going to throw another wrench into this problem. What if there is a good chance the team could get caught, and they make you the scapegoat? We’ve seen it happen where the team as a whole was “unaware” and that some rogue employee was behind the illicit actions. Would that change your decision?
Before I open up the floor, I have one last question for you. When you do see that a team has done something they shouldn’t have, does it bother or disappoint you? Or do you just see it as part of the sport? People always seem to have very strong opinions one way or the other about cheating in other sports, and I’m curious if you look at it the same in NASCAR.
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