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 ...
Give what up, you were proven wrong.
It's over, but I'll not soon forget the depth of your mindless hatred.
I'm not the one on a 6 month campaign of lies, you are.
You do no credit to the #3 you profess to admire so passionately.
Admire so passionately? A fan, yes, but I don't know about a passionate admirer. You can't keep anything in perspective.
A fool, perhaps. Perhaps I am. But not for the reason you think. Rather for spending any of my precious time on this earth trying to reason with the likes of you.
What reasoning? You have shown no reasoning at all, just blind belief of obvious lies. If you employed any reasoning, you wouldn't go on these conspiracy binges. Rather, you'd respect good people enough not to spread malicious gossip about them with absolutely no proof.
If this were just a one time misjudgment on your part I wouldn't defend good people against your lies so vehemently. But this has been an all-year deal with you. From February to last week to the last couple of days, nothing but bull has been in your posts.
What the heck are you smoking? I've let this particular venomous claim of yours go for too long. I did a search for NASCAR-related posts and found over 70, going back one year to 6/30/02. Assuming that the search engine retains my user-specified 'followed' and 'unfollowed' link colors, I read exactly TWO of those threads.
I wouldn't doubt that somewhere, on some thread, among the hundreds upon hundreds out there, you might find other comments from me about a NASCAR-related topic. I told you, I very rarely participate on NASCAR-related threads on FR, which isn't to say I never do.
But a 6-month campaign of lies?
YOU WROTE: If this were just a one time misjudgment on your part I wouldn't defend good people against your lies so vehemently. But this has been an all-year deal with you. From February to last week to the last couple of days, nothing but bull has been in your posts.
But ah, yes, I finally found that post in February that you've been stewing about. Me, I had forgotten about it, but man, you are one peculiar individual for holding on to a grudge against some stranger who exchanged a couple of posts with you several months ago.
So let me get this straight: I post comments you take exception to on exactly TWO threads spread over a four-month period, and that, to you, becomes a "6-month campaign of lies" from which you feel the need to protect all those good people out there. Boy oh boy. Now I understand what the deal is with you.
BTW, I recall on an occasion seeing the 3 Dales (Sr., Jr. and DJ) heading for the exits after a race in the same golfcart. I suspect they were late for some hunting or something. And as I understand it, Jr. looked to DJ for some comfort and guidence after his dad passed on. They do have some sort of relationship/friendship.
Have fun!
What an incredible investigative effort - good work! I must admit, I'm quite nascar naive. I just started watching races as my son is a Junior fan. All along I've been reading your screen name to mean Dale Jr. - like him so much, you wrote his number twice. LOL, who'da thunk it, Dale Jarrett is 88! I'm still giggling at myself.
Enjoy Bristol; you definitely earned it.
Sport? R U $hitting me? Car racing is a SPORT? Next thing you know, you all will be calling the drivers "athletes".....
Love the crash scenes though.....
I also am curious about the question of whether or not NASCAR is the WWF on wheels or an honest sport — ummm..."sport." That's why articles on cheating in NASCAR pique my interest.
Yep. In February your theory was that Nascar let Dale Jr run with a bigger restrictor. A lie with no shred of evidence. Now you print the lies of an author that, obvious to anyone with common sense, was lying. Both accuse various people of cheating. July - February = 6 months. In between you say that the only thing he's done is be named "Earnhardt"...another lie. He's won two Busch titles, won in his twelth start and won the Winston as a rookie.
YOU WROTE: If this were just a one time misjudgment on your part I wouldn't defend good people against your lies so vehemently. But this has been an all-year deal with you. From February to last week to the last couple of days, nothing but bull has been in your posts. But ah, yes, I finally found that post in February that you've been stewing about. Me, I had forgotten about it,... but man, you are one peculiar individual for holding on to a grudge against some stranger who exchanged a couple of posts with you several months ago.
Not holding a grudge...simply remembering an idiot whjen he makes as big a fool of himself as you did in February. That was a major lie you were telling.
So let me get this straight: I post comments you take exception to on exactly TWO threads spread over a four-month period, and that, to you, becomes a "6-month campaign of lies" from which you feel the need to protect all those good people out there. Boy oh boy. Now I understand what the deal is with you.
This is a symptom of one of the great evils of modern society...people accuse the worst things against people in public with no evidence and therefore no sense of morality. It's wrong to go around and accuse good people of these kinds of things...very wrong. And it goes on with every walk of life, from lies against the president, to Nascar, to Joe Sixpack down the street. That's what I said earlier, that's it's hard to publically like anything anymore, because of immoral people like you that don't have the decency to try to be truthful about things.
LOL, I never thought of that.
Have you not learned anything? The tweaking is a common occurance in tech inspection. The author knew that but printed this knowing gullible people like you would believe it wasn't a common occurance. And I'll say again that if you believe the fender was moved an inch and a half above the fender, you don't know Nascar.
No, they pique your interest because you're the type that enjoys falsely accusing others, as you've shown over and over.
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