News-Record.com

Title: IS RACING RUN ON A LEVEL FIELD?
Author: BOB ZELLER
Date: February 24, 1995
Section: SPORTS
Page: C1

A recent spree of fines brings up a question murmered, but never asked along Nascar's pit road.

Week in and week out, it is one of the most frequently discussed topics in the NASCAR garages. The gossip is kept in-house, rarely reported on or talked about outside the stock car family.

But the fact is, many drivers, owners and mechanics believe that NASCAR is not on the up-and-up. They are convinced that officials play favorites, manipulating the outcome of races by secretly giving certain competitors advantages over the others.

They say one car with certain mechanical characteristics can sail through inspection while an identical car is not approved. They suspect that yellow flags are thrown at suspicious times and that certain cars are cited for speeding on pit road while others going just as fast aren't.

It was a particularly hot topic in the garages last week at Daytona because of the rash of fines and penalties levied by NASCAR for cheating. Some of the sport's top stars say they believe that NASCAR, once again, is favoring certain drivers, teams or sponsors, surreptitiously granting concessions that help those cars run better.

Can it be? Is the sport that has experienced unparalleled growth in the past 15 years being played on a level track?

NASCAR's top officials categorically deny that any races are secretly tilted in favor of individual competitors or that mechanical advantages or inspection favors are doled out under the table.

"We've got to maintain our credibility or the whole ship sinks," President Bill France said Friday. "Your editors wouldn't assign you to cover this sport, and CBS wouldn't put it on the air if it was a sham. There's too much riding on this."

There may never be a definitive answer to the question, but in an effort to determine how widespread the skepticism is, the News and Record conducted an anonymous survey of 30 top members of the NASCAR family -- drivers, crew chiefs, owners and others. Because all of those surveyed work closely with NASCAR on a regular basis, anonymity was granted.

The survey consisted of just two questions:

Do you believe that NASCAR secretly singles out teams for favors and tries to tilt the odds in their favor?

Has your team ever been secretly singled out by NASCAR to receive exclusive favors or concessions?

In response to the first question, 14 people said they believe NASCAR tries to secretly influence races. The other 16 did not believe it was so.

On the second question, 28 people said their team has never received special favors, but two said their teams have been helped secretly by NASCAR.

It is no secret that NASCAR makes adjustments with the makes of cars to keep the competition close -- to keep "a level playing field," as officials often say. Last year, for instance, the Pontiacs were allowed to lengthen their bodies to improve their aerodynamics when it became apparent that they couldn't run with the Fords and Chevys.

Further, it is common knowledge that nearly every Winston Cup team tries to get away with anything it can. But this is a long-established tradition in stock car racing, and most fans regard it as good-old American ingenuity rising above the constraints of authority.

But NASCAR also is responsible for policing the sport, for making sure everybody plays by the rules. It is expected to catch and punish the cheaters.

This year, the early part of Speedweeks in Daytona was marked by a rash of fines against a variety of cheaters. Car owner Bill Davis was caught with one of the most spectacular cheating devices ever found -- a driver-operated hydraulic pump to lower the rear deck lid for better aerodynamics. And Junior Johnson was given the largest fine in NASCAR history -- $45,000 -- after inspectors found an ingenious device in the engine's manifold to increase horsepower.

But some folks in the garage would have you believe the real story was not who got caught, but who didn't.

One driver surveyed said that if every car in the garage was legal, none would go faster than 188 mph. In this year's Daytona qualifying, 34 cars exceeded 188 mph.

Reports of special treatment for select teams surfaced again last week. Stories circulated that certain devices were taken from favored cars, but no fines were levied and nothing was said.

"It's known as 'the call,' " one source said. "We joke about it. We say, 'Did you get the call this week?'

"Has it ever happened to me? No. Have I seen it happen? Yes. I've seen them let a car through (inspection) that was 400 pounds light. I've seen them let a car through with the wrong numbers on the tires. It's the call."

In the minds of the conspiracy theorists, if ever a race was fixed, it was last season's inaugural Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, won by Jeff Gordon.

Some believe the 23-year-old Gordon is NASCAR's designated heir apparent to Dale Earnhardt, and thus gets special favors.

The allegations are that Gordon's Chevy had more speed on the long Indy straights than the Fords -- which had not happened at any other track all year -- and that Gordon's car was visibly lower than the others, which would give it an aerodynamic advantage.

"I normally don't comment on something that outrageous," said Ray Evernham, Gordon's crew chief. "I know we were legal and Jeff drove his butt off. Something like that comes from someone who had no chance of winning anyway."

France said there was no manipulation from NASCAR to favor Gordon, adding, "We didn't get any criticism to my knowledge from any other competitors concerning the inspection on Jeff Gordon's car. If he got away with something, he got away with something without our knowledge."

People who don't believe the sport is manipulated point to a number of compelling arguments.

For instance, the No. 23 Camel Cigarettes Ford, which is backed by NASCAR's biggest sponsor, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., was slow here all week and failed to qualify for last Sunday's Daytona 500, the biggest race of the year. It also did poorly last year.

"If it really was fixed, don't you think NASCAR would be helping the R.J. Reynolds car?" said one of those surveyed.

Further, if NASCAR was willing to manipulate the sport for the sake of sponsors, why would they have embarrassed Davis and Johnson, both of whom have new sponsors (MBNA and Lowe's), with huge fines at their first races?

France made another point that was echoed by several of those surveyed.

"If a team came to me and wanted something," he said, "and I decided to give it to them, I've got to go to Gary (Winston Cup director Gary Nelson). That's another person in the loop. And then he's got to go to the inspectors. That's three or four more people in the loop."

When that many people know about it, the secret is bound to get out, France said.

"There's too much at stake to do that," he said. "We've worked hard to get the sport up to where it is now. And there isn't any way we're knowingly going to let that happen."

But down in the garages -- whether fueled by sour grapes, paranoia or reality -- the skepticism lives on.