pandr
06-19-2011, 04:18 PM
Pushing the envelope a Cup game
By David Scott - charlotteobserver
Saturday, Jun. 18, 2011
BROOKLYN, Mich. - NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Carl Edwards was on the telephone to the White House about a year ago, and he was having to explain himself.
Nominated to be on the President's Council for Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, Edwards was being thoroughly checked out. Part of the vetting process, Edwards said, was to be asked "about every bad thing I have done in my life."
Among those things, he said, were incidents of rule-breaking in NASCAR.
"They really wanted to talk about these times that our team had been caught cheating," said Edwards, who had that happen in 2008 when he was penalized 100 points in Las Vegas for racing without a cover on his Ford's oil tank. "They were like, 'Why were you fined those points and this money? You guys were cheating?'
"No, you don't understand," Edwards recalled saying. "This is auto racing. The guys at the shop build the most trick thing they can and bring it to the race track. I hop in and drive it. If you run well or some part falls off or the heights aren't right, then it looks like we were cheating.
"But that's part of the sport."
Edwards, who was named to the council in June 2010, apparently convinced President Barack Obama's folks.
But this weekend, as the Cup series prepares for today's Heluva Good! 400 at Michigan International Speedway, drivers and crews again are having to explain themselves - this time only to NASCAR. And it sometimes makes for some uncomfortable moments.
On Friday, Joe Gibbs Racing's three teams were found to have not submitted their oil pans for NASCAR approval. NASCAR, without saying the oil pans were illegal, confiscated them and said they'd be looked at early this week at its research and development center in Concord. The teams of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano might face penalties, according to NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp.
Later Friday - after the oil pans were changed, put on display at the NASCAR hauler and the teams were allowed to practice - Hamlin was asked if he knew his car might have been unloaded with an illegal oil pan.
"No, nope," said Hamlin, purposefully offering nothing else to the yes-or-no question.
Hamlin was asked minutes later if he is in the loop about what kind of parts are put on his No.11 Toyota and if he expected there to be penalties.
"I don't think so, as far as the last part," said Hamlin, looking uncomfortable with the question. "For me, I don't know a whole lot about it, to be honest with you. We continue to evolve our cars throughout the season. It's just, all teams do."
Then Hamlin offered the same defense Edwards used with the White House.
"I think that's more of a kind of a thing that the crew chiefs and the engineers talk to NASCAR" about, Hamlin said. "Usually when you have a new part, sometimes you submit and sometimes you don't. This is probably one of the parts NASCAR wants you to submit. Probably the biggest issue they had with it is you showed up at the prom with a different date."
Pushing the rules as far as possible - hey, maybe even beyond in some instances - is a huge part of NASCAR's fabric, of course.
"They make the rules and, just like a guy like (crew chief and mechanic) Smokey Yunick would back in the day, there's always a gray area," said driver David Reutimann, who had a qualifying time disallowed during 2009 because of a shock-absorber penalty. "If there's a gray area, it's a team's job to exploit that. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out."
That's what Edwards tried to explain to the White House.
"I thought it was humorous, although I was on the phone to the White House," he said. "They think that if it didn't fit the rules it was cheating. There is a lot to it and it is complicated. They couldn't understand that I had no clue the oil cooler lid had fallen off.
"It's an awkward position to be in to try and explain that stuff because we show up and drive the race cars. You want your guys at the shop pushing every edge of the rule. That is what you want."
C/P Thats Racin
By David Scott - charlotteobserver
Saturday, Jun. 18, 2011
BROOKLYN, Mich. - NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Carl Edwards was on the telephone to the White House about a year ago, and he was having to explain himself.
Nominated to be on the President's Council for Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, Edwards was being thoroughly checked out. Part of the vetting process, Edwards said, was to be asked "about every bad thing I have done in my life."
Among those things, he said, were incidents of rule-breaking in NASCAR.
"They really wanted to talk about these times that our team had been caught cheating," said Edwards, who had that happen in 2008 when he was penalized 100 points in Las Vegas for racing without a cover on his Ford's oil tank. "They were like, 'Why were you fined those points and this money? You guys were cheating?'
"No, you don't understand," Edwards recalled saying. "This is auto racing. The guys at the shop build the most trick thing they can and bring it to the race track. I hop in and drive it. If you run well or some part falls off or the heights aren't right, then it looks like we were cheating.
"But that's part of the sport."
Edwards, who was named to the council in June 2010, apparently convinced President Barack Obama's folks.
But this weekend, as the Cup series prepares for today's Heluva Good! 400 at Michigan International Speedway, drivers and crews again are having to explain themselves - this time only to NASCAR. And it sometimes makes for some uncomfortable moments.
On Friday, Joe Gibbs Racing's three teams were found to have not submitted their oil pans for NASCAR approval. NASCAR, without saying the oil pans were illegal, confiscated them and said they'd be looked at early this week at its research and development center in Concord. The teams of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano might face penalties, according to NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp.
Later Friday - after the oil pans were changed, put on display at the NASCAR hauler and the teams were allowed to practice - Hamlin was asked if he knew his car might have been unloaded with an illegal oil pan.
"No, nope," said Hamlin, purposefully offering nothing else to the yes-or-no question.
Hamlin was asked minutes later if he is in the loop about what kind of parts are put on his No.11 Toyota and if he expected there to be penalties.
"I don't think so, as far as the last part," said Hamlin, looking uncomfortable with the question. "For me, I don't know a whole lot about it, to be honest with you. We continue to evolve our cars throughout the season. It's just, all teams do."
Then Hamlin offered the same defense Edwards used with the White House.
"I think that's more of a kind of a thing that the crew chiefs and the engineers talk to NASCAR" about, Hamlin said. "Usually when you have a new part, sometimes you submit and sometimes you don't. This is probably one of the parts NASCAR wants you to submit. Probably the biggest issue they had with it is you showed up at the prom with a different date."
Pushing the rules as far as possible - hey, maybe even beyond in some instances - is a huge part of NASCAR's fabric, of course.
"They make the rules and, just like a guy like (crew chief and mechanic) Smokey Yunick would back in the day, there's always a gray area," said driver David Reutimann, who had a qualifying time disallowed during 2009 because of a shock-absorber penalty. "If there's a gray area, it's a team's job to exploit that. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out."
That's what Edwards tried to explain to the White House.
"I thought it was humorous, although I was on the phone to the White House," he said. "They think that if it didn't fit the rules it was cheating. There is a lot to it and it is complicated. They couldn't understand that I had no clue the oil cooler lid had fallen off.
"It's an awkward position to be in to try and explain that stuff because we show up and drive the race cars. You want your guys at the shop pushing every edge of the rule. That is what you want."
C/P Thats Racin