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02/16/2007: "Not The Start They Were Looking For ..."

There was a time when NASCAR was looked at like the bastard step-brother to the All-American racers at Indy and the tech-savvy rockets of Formula 1. Stock car drivers were seen as nothing more than moonshine runners killing time racing until the next batch came off the still.

No more.

Over the last few years, NASCAR has expanded it's fan base far beyond the southern states. Today, the most popular races (outside the Daytona 500) are in Chicago, Las Vegas and here in LA. Huge amounts of money are being raised by NASCAR as more and more sponsors pay to slap their logo on the side of a car. You just knew it wouldn't take long for the world to notice.

During the past offseason, two events occured that showed just how NASCAR has grown beyond its roots. Juan Montoya - former Indy 500 winner and 7-time F1 race champion - left the European circuit to pilot a stock car for Chip Ganassi. And Toyota - long time nemesis of the American Big Three car manufacturers - announced its intention to join NASCAR as a sponsoring factory.

You can say this for Toyota - they didn't scrimp on the effort. They have three teams and eight drivers, and have gotten a lot of good publicity through their lead team, Michael Waltrip Racing. Armed with a photogenic team leader and a strong team of drivers that includes past champ Dale Jarrett, MWR arrived at the season-starting Daytona Speed Weeks with much promise.

With increased attention comes increased pressure, and the teams of NASCAR are not immune. The need to compete has always led teams to dance that fine line between legal and illegal, and sometimes they find themselves crossing the line. After the qualifying sessions were complete, 4 crew chiefs were fined and suspended for rules infractions. Worse still, the MWR car driven by Waltrip himself was confiscated and torn down. During the process, a compound - said to be a component of rocket fuel - was found in the gas supply. Coming in the wake of the earlier suspensions, the publicity couldn't have been worse. His crew chief was escorted off the premises and Waltrip's car was banned from the race. Without the benefit of owner points (after all, it's a new team), Waltrip was left in unenviable position of having to jump in a car he'd never driven (a backup for one of the other MWR drivers) and try and race his way into the big event during one of the twin Thursday qualifiers. All while serving as the face of the Toyota effort and performing numerous interviews as part of the damage control process.

Give Mike credit. His personal credibility is such that when he said it was the actions of an individual and not the team, people believed him. Even more impressive is the fact that with only 2 spots available for qualifiers in his race, he worked his way from the end of the field up to 8th place to secure a starting spot in the Sunday main event.

I like Mike. His aw-shucks persona is a nice reminder of how things used to be. But don't for a second confuse his goofy grin for a lack of business-savvy. After all, this is the guy Toyota chose to lead a huge NASCAR effort. He claims a lack of knowledge of what went on in his garage, and I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt ... even as I personally find it hard to believe.

The good ol' boys of NASCAR need to understand that the old days are over. Cheating used to be sport in NASCAR, but with all the new money and attention, you just can't afford to push it too far over the edge. Too much is on the line.

Unfortunately, we learned a lot about NASCAR itself in this incident. Waltrip might be a nice guy, but his team crossed the line when they doctored the fuel. If the suits at NASCAR were serious about cheating, they'd have sent MWR packing. But in the end, they understand that their real allegiance lies not with the fans or competition but with the sponsors, who have paid millions of dollars to see their logos go round and round on national TV. At some point, NASCAR will have to grow a pair or they'll see their sport go the way of so many others where sponsor dollars kill credibility.