(Dale Earnhardt) Jr's Busch Crew Cheated, NASCAR Looked Away, I Saw It All

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.

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.

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...

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."

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.

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?

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.

If you look at the...photos you can see...the area where the fender was adjusted.

I don't want to keep doing this tit-for-tat nonsense, but I'll be darned if I let what you're doing go unanswered. 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?)

I asked if it was you that thought Dale had a bigger engine. You said it wasn't you because you don't post to these Nascar threads. So I went through my past posts and found where you had thought that Dale had a bigger restrictor plate in February. So indeed you did post to these Nascar threads and indeed you did have a theory that Dale had a bigger restrictor plate. I think my memory was pretty good considering it's been more than four months since your first conspiracy theory this year. If you'd have been honest, you would've simply said that you believed that Dale had a bigger restrictor plate instead of acting as if the conversation never took place in any form.

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?

It's obvious to any sane individual what you're all about and what this author is all about. The author is giving people like you what you want to hear, simple as that. Daschle is a liar too, no need to contact the White House every time he says something about the president.

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.

You're saying that Nascar is allowing Dale to run with bigger restrictor plates and allowing him to break the rules. You also said that he never accomplished anything and that's not true. He's won two Busch championships, won in his 12th Winston Cup start and won the Winston as a rookie. A damn good record for the last 5 years. So, yes, what you have said is false malicious gossip.

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.

Like I said he isn't going to be sued. If reporters could be sued for innacuracy and lies, the New York Times would be out of work. It's easy enough just to know that he's a liar and to take away his garage pass.

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.

You haven't gotten over it all year. You're as hysterical now as you were in February.

Now that you've posted my entire statement, in context, Yes that's what I said, not what you posted first. And I stand by it.

"No problem with all the other names, just with Adam's. His "easier route," as you put it, led to his death. How sad for you that you really can't seem to get the point. As for me, go ahead and insult me all you want. No big deal. Whatever rocks your world."

All you're doing is looking for things to offended about. Nobody else on this thread took offense at my statement, nobody else has interpreted what I said like that, do you think all the NASCAR freepers I pinged are all Jr. fans in on the "conspiracy"?

What you're doing is trying to distract attention from the fact that you can't add anything of substance to your side of the argument.

Tell you what, just to show you what kind of person I am, If you're offended by my post, I apologize. But I stand by it as it is, in the record.

BTW....From my profile page...

"Lewis Grizzard,Dale Earnhardt#3, Adam Petty,and the 5,000 poor souls who perished 9/11. WE'LL NEVER FORGET!!

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