SISIFIED NASCAR

Maybe the old timers are right. Maybe NASCAR – in its chase for fans and TV dollars – has just gotten too damn sophisticated for itself.

Bring back the good old days, I say.

Mikey Waltrip gets busted for a fuel additive in his new Toyota. Toyota is mortified, Waltrip’s crew chief and team manager are fined and tossed … and a few days before that, the crew chiefs for Matt Kenseth, Casey Kahne, Scott Riggs and Elliot Sadler were all fined for tinkering with their cars.

What do we have to look forward to if NASCAR is going to punish ingenuity?

Parity? Jesus, that word has ruined just about every sport in which it has appeared! (Let’s not even start talking about the COT … that may very well end up a nail in the coffin.)

I have no problem with guys cheating. If you get caught before the race you start at the back of the pack … or even start a lap down. If you get caught after the race, you forfeit, plain and simple.

But this fining and suspension and BS all because some crew chiefs or owners think they can outsmart the tech inspectors is PART OF RACING. Or at least I thought it was.

And what NASCAR is doing is the same thing the SCCA did back in the 70s when the Chaparral 2J came along. You couldn’t beat the “sucker” Chaparral, so outlaw it. That was the beginning of the end of the old Can Am series, which was some of the greatest racing – and innovation in motorsport – ever.

While all kinds of cool stories are evolving … Toyota’s finally here, Montoya, Almendinger, Galliland and Rudd, plus James Hylton (the 72-year old former NASCAR champ) and more … NASCAR is playing CSI goes to Wall Street.

We wanna see racing …and if a little cheating goes on, well … hell, the sport started out as a spin off of moonshining!

Let ‘em cheat … spend your time trying to catch ‘em. Now that’d be a whole lot more fun.