Really Carl Long?  Too many cubic inches?  At what point did you really think that was a good idea?  There is “working in the gray areas,” and then there is cheating.  What Long did was about as blatant as cheating gets.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, Carl Long was suspended for twelve races on Wednesday, docked 200 points, and his crew chief was fined $200,000 for running an engine at the All Star Showdown that exceeded the maximum engine cubic inch limit.  See the story at SceneDaily.

The penalties levied on Long & Co. are the most severe ever handed down by NASCAR.

The engine that broke the rule was run during practice for the Showdown, but it blew up and was replaced before the Showdown.  NASCAR took the engine from the team, and brought it back to it’s R&D center in Concord, NC.  It was there that the infraction was discovered.

Normally you want to root for guys like this.  They scrape together every cent they have just to show up at the track.  Everybody loves the underdog.  And I understand that they are at a serious disadvantage when they hit the track because of the lack of resources.  And I can also understand trying to fudge on some things to try and make the race.  But thinking you can get away with putting an engine in the car that is too big to gain a horsepower advantage is ludicrous.

In my opinion, Long and his team deserve everything they get in this situation.  It’s such a stupid and blatant disregard for the rules that NASCAR had no other choice but to come down hard on them.  This is the kind of cheating you would expect to find on a Friday night at a local short track.  Not in the Sprint Cup Series.

So now, on top of the twelve race suspension and the point penalties, they’ve also most likely ruined the career of the crew chief.  Something tells me that neither he nor Carl Long can afford to pay a $200,000 fine, and NASCAR won’t allow him into a track until the fine is paid.

Hope it was worth it.