Posted on 07/07/2003 11:07:39 AM PDT by Wolfstar
Well, it's about that time of the year for me to write one of those articles that gets me in trouble. I don't try to do this, but sometimes it just happens. If you have read my stuff before you know that I write what I see and I hold nothing back.
Dale Earnhardt Jr's dominance in the Busch series continued this weekend. He led wire to wire and took the win at Daytona.
Anytime Dale Jr wins, the conspiracy theorists come out in full form and make up the craziest stories as to how NASCAR let Dale get away with it and how they favor him. I am always one to say that the rules are the rules and NASCAR can not fix the outcome of a race.
I still believe that.
However, I saw something on Friday that shocked me. Not only did Jr's crew do something so blatantly obvious during inspection, but the NASCAR officials let it go, and to top it off they laughed and joked about it.
[SNIP]
This weekend I was at Daytona with garage/pit credentials courtesy of NASCAR. After this, it'll probably be the last time.
Inspection finally opened up prior to the race and the cars were sent thru a maze in the garage area consisting of about 5 or 6 different areas that the teams pushed the cars thru. One checked body templates, one checked under the cars, one checked the weight, etc. I found it odd that they would move the cars to several different locations to accomplish this, but a NASCAR official escorted each car from station to station to ensure that no one did anything illegal.
When Dale Jr's car was going thru the station that checks the roof height and the valance heights and others, I walked over to that station and snapped off a couple pictures...
[SNIP]
Jr's team pushed the car up on the scales.
The NASCAR officials were having the teams disconnect and reconnect the sway bar at the scales. So, the 8 team, as others, lifted the hood and went to work on the sway bar. Then it happened.
One of Jr's crew members walked over to the passenger side and while the inspectors were looking at the computer to see the numbers and the other one was watching the guy wrenching on the sway bar, the crew member grabbed the hood in the area where it goes over the right front tire and bent it severely upward away from the fender. I sat there for a second thinking, "Why did he do that?"
Then the officials told them to close the hood and move on to the next station, they had passed this portion of inspection. At this point the same crew member closed the hood and now it didn’t fit with the fender anymore. So what did he do? He grabbed the fender and yanked it up at least an inch and a half to meet the newly shaped hood. As he yanked it up, the rest of the fender, above the tire twisted and contorted to this new shape. He closed the hood and it still wasn’t right, so he opened it and adjusted the fender some more until he got it where he wanted it. Then he closed the hood.
This was a major modification to the shape of the fender at a place where the templates are checked very closely.
To make it worse, there were 3 NASCAR inspectors watching this. One Winston Cup inspector and 2 Busch series officials.
They looked at each other and one said to Jr's guys, "That was a major adjustment there guys, I think you need to go back thru the templates."
I thought, "Ok, they are going to do the right thing."
Then they all laughed. The crew guy said, "OH, they never check that anyways." And they laughed some more. The main inspector looked at the obviously tweaked fender and shook his head and said, "I knew we couldn't trust you guys." And they all laughed again.
They pushed the car over to the next station and that was the end of it.
How could these officials let this team make such a blatant adjustment to a critical part of the car and not make them go back thru the templates?
[SNIP]
Now, I am sure all the Jr fans will write in and tell me that I am jealous of Jr or that I need to get a life. But I want you to seriously consider what happened. The rules specifically state that no adjustments can be made to the body of the car after it goes thru the templates or else you must go thru the templates again. A major reshaping of this fender was done and the officials just laughed it off.
I watched several other teams get sent back thru the templates and other stations for far less minor infractions.
Jr fan or not, a rule is rule and it must be enforced evenly. I place the blame here on the NASCAR officials and not on Jr's team. They did what they had to do and they got away with it. The officials did not do their job properly. I personally would like to see an investigation into this and find out why it was allowed. I have the names of all 3 NASCAR officials if anybody wants them. And, I actually had one person say that post race inspection would have found the infraction if there was one. They do not template the car in post race inspection. The cars bump each other during the race.
[SNIP]
If you look at the...photos you can see...the area where the fender was adjusted.
[END EXERPT]
(Excerpt) Read more at insidethepitbox.com ...
I also called Mike Helton's office and spoke with HIS secretary who asked for the same information that DEI did. They didn't take any "official" position on this, they just said that the information would be passed along to Mr. Helton and asked me for my name and a phone number where I could be reached.
So. Looks like this guy is going to have a lot of important people calling to ask him some very interesting questions.
We shall see what the future holds for this man. Either a big reward or his butt's gonna get blown out of the water.
Ya know, I wonder if the author isn't a disgruntled small time racer who may have been shunned by DEI or RCR for a job at one time or another. Sure smells that way.
Your question was as follows: Was that you earlier this year that theorized that Dale Jr's engine was "bigger" than everyone else's?
When I answered no, you responded: Yes, it was you. Your conspiracy was that Nascar lets Dale Jr run with bigger holes in the restrictor plates.
So it seems that you like to practice a little bait-and-switch. Ask one question, then insist the answer you get isn't correct because you really meant a different question. (Or perhaps it's that you don't know the difference between an engine and a restrictor plate?)
As for the rest of your silly, overheated response, I have a couple of questions of my own. Have you taken up my suggestion to notify DEI about the article? Or to contact the author of the article about the issues you have with it? Or do you just find it easier to avoid getting any substantive answers to your questions, preferring instead to lash out in a forum that preserves anonymity?
Oh, and by the way, don't you dare attribute an incorrect motivation to me. Your notion of my "spreading false, malicious gossip," is specious. I came across the article on a racing forum where it was posted by another participant on that forum. The original article was published on yet a different racing site. Who knows how many hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, saw it before and after I did. It is a news article — not just a news article, but a first-hand account by the man who says he was an eyewitness to the events described. As I mentioned to you yesterday, if there is anything that can be proven false or malicious about it, the author can be sued big time. So, for that matter, can the organization for which he works. IF — repeat, if — there is any truth to what the man describes, then he is protected by a little thing called the First Amendment, as are all those who comment on what he wrote.
And if there is any truth to what the man describes, then I come back to my original point. I find it disturbing that NASCAR officials might look the other way, as described. I find it disturbing for the reasons I stated several times in this thread. You may not like it nor agree with my point of view. But, hey, that's life and I most assuredly will get over it.
LOL....that's not Jr.'s style. That's Tony Stewart you're thinking of, discostu.
I just got tired of the whining and complaining, so I picked up the phone and made some calls.
I hate it when people can't back up their story. So, I called him on it.
The author, Wolfstar, not you.
Try that next time and you may not have to get treated for 3rd degree burns.
But the author will. Of all the cars that teams could tamper with, this guy picks DEI.
Obviously, he doesn't know Teresa very well. She'll fight him tooth and nail if this is false. Ouch.
As to your suggestion, thanks. But (truly not intending to be argumentative) I thought that all articles posted on FR are for discussion only. Perhaps I picked up a misconception about that somewhere along the way.
C'mon 3, dontchaknow, Wolfstar wouldn't have posted this article if he hadn't been concerned for Jr.'s safety.
It's fo' da chilrun, weez got to be cocernt fo' da chilrun!
Dude, you just destroyed all your credibility by attempting to throw up this smoke screen. This is pure Carville/Begala. Pity...
Whatever.
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