25, 25, 25 ... do I hear 50?
Cheating, like turning left and driving fast, has been part of NASCAR ever since there was a NASCAR. Every driver and crew chief, it seems, tries to bend (or even break) the rules to give their car an advantage.
Last week at Vegas, you had three such instances that got caught: Kevin Harvick's mostly empty gas tank, race winner Jimmie Johnson's height-challenged car and runner-up Kyle Busch's oversized rear quarter panel.
Chances are -- and we should know this afternoon -- all three of these teams are going to get smacked. Will they lose points? Will NASCAR take away some cash? And will Harvick's crew chief, Todd Berrier, be watching from home for the next few weeks? At this point, who knows?
If NASCAR wants to get people's attention, they'll go for the points option.
For the past couple of seasons, NASCAR has stripped 25 points from drivers drivers and owners for what it deems major penalties. When Dale Earnhardt Jr. dropped the s-bomb on live TV after winning Talladega last fall, NASCAR docked him 25 points. Robby Gordon lost 25 points for intake manifold violations at Daytona last month. In 2003, three drivers (Michael Waltrip, Kyle Petty and Stacy Compton) lost 25 points each for racing at Daytona with unapproved parts. And on and on.
Twenty-five points is a pretty big hit. Jamie McMurray missed last year's Chase by 15 points. Kasey Kahne was just 28 points back.
But why stop there? Why not, say, take away 50 points? If NASCAR is serious about stopping cheating, it needs to get the attention of drivers and car owners, and the 25-point standard doesn't seem to be working.
Down in Charlotte, the Observer's David Poole argues for some consistency in NASCAR's penalties. NASCAR is nothing if not inconsistent, so that's sort of like asking Kevin Harvick to be nicer and for Morgan Shepherd to be faster.
Then again, cheating is part of the sport. At the very least it gives us race fans something to talk about.