Whizzer
Gig'em
Karl Martin, a reporter for a Dallas print media publication, retracted his story late yesterday evening. Martin's story dealt with an opinion poll taken of drivers.
Martin, a reporter familiar with the NEXTEL NASCAR RACING Series, discovered he had been the victim of a hoax and in his words, "a stupid prank".
After writing and seeing Martin's article in print, one "driver" came forward and revealed many of the "drivers" Martin had interviewed were really the same person representing themselves and, who later, changed driver uniforms and imitated other drivers. The prank was intended to gain support and skew opinion polls.
Further investigation by Martin revealed several drivers were involved and not who they said they were at the time of the interview. They admitted they resorted to using undercover and covert techniques to create the illusion of greater support of thier personal opinions. Reportedly, one of the fraudlent players went to the extreme of conducting the interview in the Goodwrench transporter, presenting himself as Kevin "Happy" Harvick. This individual, it later turned out, was a cousin, twice removed, of a pit crew member and a reporter for his high school news paper.
Martin's subsequently confronted one driver, who asked not to be identified by either his true identity or the identity of the two drivers he pled guilty to representing at the time of the original interviews. This individual admitted the idea came from reading posts at the following website:
http://www.racing-doldrums.com
This driver noted posts appeared to be written by the same person and kept popping up on various threads at this website. The driver determined if they could get away with it on a website, why not in a poll taken within the confines of the garage?? The plot thickens.
The driver stated it was a "chicken@@@@" thing to do and was embarrassed, admitting he later felt like a sixth grader when he tried to pass himself of as Bobby Isaac. He told Martin how he dressed in Isaac's old uniform, later thinking how rediculous he must have looked knowing Bobby Isaac had passed away many years ago and then taking Martin's historical knowledge of NASCAR into play by telling Martin, his name was "Chuck" Isaac. The driver however, did admit to a feeling of euphoria when he successfully registered another vote for Earnhardt as "best of all time".
Karl Martin offers his most humble apology for permitting himself to be a scapegoat at the hands of a few idiotic pranksters, but also felt it was worth it by putting posters who try to assume double, triple and in some cases, more identities on websites.............. on notice. As Martin proclaimed,
"We know who you are" !!!!!!!!!!
In the telling of fables such as this one, as in true life, things many times are stranger than fiction, and there is always the potential for the axiom "if the shoe fits", to apply.
If "the shoe does fit", as in any fable, there is a moral, " even a glass slipper can break".
Martin, a reporter familiar with the NEXTEL NASCAR RACING Series, discovered he had been the victim of a hoax and in his words, "a stupid prank".
After writing and seeing Martin's article in print, one "driver" came forward and revealed many of the "drivers" Martin had interviewed were really the same person representing themselves and, who later, changed driver uniforms and imitated other drivers. The prank was intended to gain support and skew opinion polls.
Further investigation by Martin revealed several drivers were involved and not who they said they were at the time of the interview. They admitted they resorted to using undercover and covert techniques to create the illusion of greater support of thier personal opinions. Reportedly, one of the fraudlent players went to the extreme of conducting the interview in the Goodwrench transporter, presenting himself as Kevin "Happy" Harvick. This individual, it later turned out, was a cousin, twice removed, of a pit crew member and a reporter for his high school news paper.
Martin's subsequently confronted one driver, who asked not to be identified by either his true identity or the identity of the two drivers he pled guilty to representing at the time of the original interviews. This individual admitted the idea came from reading posts at the following website:
http://www.racing-doldrums.com
This driver noted posts appeared to be written by the same person and kept popping up on various threads at this website. The driver determined if they could get away with it on a website, why not in a poll taken within the confines of the garage?? The plot thickens.
The driver stated it was a "chicken@@@@" thing to do and was embarrassed, admitting he later felt like a sixth grader when he tried to pass himself of as Bobby Isaac. He told Martin how he dressed in Isaac's old uniform, later thinking how rediculous he must have looked knowing Bobby Isaac had passed away many years ago and then taking Martin's historical knowledge of NASCAR into play by telling Martin, his name was "Chuck" Isaac. The driver however, did admit to a feeling of euphoria when he successfully registered another vote for Earnhardt as "best of all time".
Karl Martin offers his most humble apology for permitting himself to be a scapegoat at the hands of a few idiotic pranksters, but also felt it was worth it by putting posters who try to assume double, triple and in some cases, more identities on websites.............. on notice. As Martin proclaimed,
"We know who you are" !!!!!!!!!!
In the telling of fables such as this one, as in true life, things many times are stranger than fiction, and there is always the potential for the axiom "if the shoe fits", to apply.
If "the shoe does fit", as in any fable, there is a moral, " even a glass slipper can break".
