Cheatin'!
SPEED TV says Harvick and Burton were cheating. NASCAR and Childress say they weren't. From AP:
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR and team owner Richard Childress on Monday dismissed as "sheer fantasy" a television report that said race winner Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton had a performance advantage at New Hampshire International Speedway. A Speed TV report Sunday said NASCAR inspectors had discovered that RCR teams had manipulated the rims on their Chevrolets to act as "bleeder valves" that slowly released air pressure in tires after the race. The practice is not technically illegal, and falls into a gray area of the rulebook that teams are supposed to respect.
Thatsracin.com version is here.
Here's where my lack of technical expertise kills me and leaves me with this question: Why would you want to take air out of your tires after a race? I'm assuming NASCAR mandates a range of pressures, and the suspicion is that the Childress teams are over the limit until the team's creative, ah, partsmanship comes into play. But hasn't the recent issue been that the tire pressures have been too low? I'm thinking of Pocono and Charlotte, where the tires were only round in concept until NASCAR stepped in (at Pocono) and Goodyear made its tires out of cement (at Charlotte).
Someone explain this one to me. I'm not seeing how it might work.
SPEED's official non-response is here. As much as I hate to say it, sometimes reporters just get it wrong. It stinks, but it happens.