Creative/memorable rule bending

wi_racefan

wi_racefan

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Figured this would be good for off season discussion. Was just thinking of some of the creative ways guys tried to get an advantage over the years. Some got busted, some came out years later. Here's the ones that come to mind for me.

When Alan got busted making the tape flaps on the 24 and the cameras happen to have caught it.

I think it was Andy Petree that put the motors on the deck lid to lower it and get the spoiler out of the air

DW saying how they used to drop shot out of the car through the jack post and nascar could never find it because it got covered every time they jacked up the car for inspection

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Frankie Stoddard at the 2002 Winston, pitting on the last lap because their stall was right before S/F.

That led to a new rule.
Click to expand...
speedwaymedia.com

An All-Star Race to Remember: How Frank Stoddard Caused a Rule Change-With the last two Sprint Cup Series races being won because of pit road strategy, it brings to mind another brilliant call made from atop the pit box. by SM Staff

With the last two Sprint Cup Series races being won because of pit road strategy, it brings to mind another brilliant call made from atop the pit box.
speedwaymedia.com speedwaymedia.com

One of my all-time favorite racing stories. Frankie found a loop hole and guided Jeff right through it, without even cheating. The booth call was memorable, probably one of the top five ever, as Larry Mac figured out the strategy.

Speaking of All-Star races, Ray Evernham's T-Rex.

racingnews.co

T-Rex: The car that was banned by NASCAR; Evernham details why - Racing News

T-Rex: The car that was banned by NASCAR. The next generation Hendrick Motorsports chassis that Jeff Gordon used to smoke the Charlotte All-Star field.
racingnews.co racingnews.co
 
The HMS Kodiak car driven by Kenny Schrader at the 93 summer Daytona race where the holes were enlarged where the bolts that bolted the carb to the manifold with holes drilled through them (carb and manifold) that allowed air to bypass the restrictor plate.

Ricky Rudd caught with a hydraulic adjustable spoiler with a controller in the car. They said it was only used during a test and they forgot to remove.

The 1995 Chevy Monte Carlo that didn't fit 2 or 3 templates because the stock rear was too narrow to allow for a spoiler to mount but was ok'd by NASCAR to race.....oh wait?
 
Remember RCR's "sucker engines" at plate tracks? When cool the manifold and carb fit template and rules, but when heated it warped and led to a small gap that allowed air under the plate?

Or when Jeff Burton was running so well in the 31 and was accused of micro drilling holes in the tires like bleeder valves that would allow them to fire off for a run at optimal air pressure versus having to build up?

Or the "7/8 scale T Bird" that Elliott was accused of running in 1985? (Or was that just DW spouting off deflecting from his cheated up car from hell)

Andy Petree admitting to putting electric motors from antenna retractors on the spoiler at plate track and moving spoiler out of air on Q run, but it worked too well and he got scared and took them off
 
2 more that come to mind are

1) The JGR heavy oil pans. Just wonder how long they ran them before someone tipped off the officals
2) The magnets that I think it was a TRD team put on the throttle linkage in an attempt to keep nascar from getting true hp values when they took the cars to the dyno.
 
wi_racefan said:
2 more that come to mind are

1) The JGR heavy oil pans. Just wonder how long they ran them before someone tipped off the officals
2) The magnets that I think it was a TRD team put on the throttle linkage in an attempt to keep nascar from getting true hp values when they took the cars to the dyno.
Click to expand...
How dare you! TRD is as pure as the freshly driven snow! (I kid, I kid)
How about HMS/Gordon with 1) soaked tires and 2) traction control. Yeah, the one where Gordon outed himself when he forgot to disengage it before burnout...

There's also a few that someone told me in person that they did when he was involved in the 80's-90's (Worked at Junior Johnson among others): Having a crewman with steel toed shoes stand there and let someone roll the car over his big toe to make height.
Rings of weight on first set of tires (50-100 lbs each) on inside of rim. Car makes weight, then loses 200-400 lbs first pit stop. I then asked how to put it back. He said they either didn't always check, but if they were, they'd put in an igloo cooler (for water/gatorade to the driver) with straw that was filled with lead or tungsten.
Having crew members celebrate near key cheated up areas of car to get in official's way if they got too close.
He did once tell me flat out bribes worked. ("If you just won a million dollars, $25k was nothing to make someone look away")

Fun stuff
 
We've joked about it before, but before the hawkeye inspection system, I had a Cup winning CC tell me the famous trick of simple numbers. He said he'd put maybe 10 illegal things on the car and make 3-4 of them blatantly obvious. Inspector checks car, finds those 3 or 4, scolds CC. CC apologizes and goes to "fix it." Comes back with still (but less so) cheated car, Inspector lets it through. He said it was a psychological game of letting them feel like they busted you. Again, 1980's-90s
 
Dr_B_UNC said:
We've joked about it before, but before the hawkeye inspection system, I had a Cup winning CC tell me the famous trick of simple numbers. He said he'd put maybe 10 illegal things on the car and make 3-4 of them blatantly obvious. Inspector checks car, finds those 3 or 4, scolds CC. CC apologizes and goes to "fix it." Comes back with still (but less so) cheated car, Inspector lets it through. He said it was a psychological game of letting them feel like they busted you. Again, 1980's-90s
Click to expand...

I think that was still going on this past season. How many times did a car fail tech twice, get sent to the back, only to be running around the front at the end of stage 1?
 
Had to look this one up, but thought it was funny.

Glenn Dunaway, 1949​

NASCAR's first race in the Strictly Stock Series -- the precursor to today's Sprint Cup Series -- took place at the old Charlotte Speedway in 1949. Dunaway won, but his 1947 Ford failed post-race inspection. Team owner Hubert Westmoreland, a moonshiner, had installed illegal heavy-duty 'bootlegger rear springs' designed to keep the rear-end up with a couple hundred gallons of 'shine in the trunk.' Jim Roper was declared the race winner. Westmoreland sued NASCAR and lost.
 
Dr_B_UNC said:
Remember RCR's "sucker engines" at plate tracks? When cool the manifold and carb fit template and rules, but when heated it warped and led to a small gap that allowed air under the plate?

Or when Jeff Burton was running so well in the 31 and was accused of micro drilling holes in the tires like bleeder valves that would allow them to fire off for a run at optimal air pressure versus having to build up?

Or the "7/8 scale T Bird" that Elliott was accused of running in 1985? (Or was that just DW spouting off deflecting from his cheated up car from hell)

Andy Petree admitting to putting electric motors from antenna retractors on the spoiler at plate track and moving spoiler out of air on Q run, but it worked too well and he got scared and took them off
Click to expand...
I thought this was during the Newman era.

Didn't Smokey also get accused of the 7/8 thing with his 66 Chevelle?
 
Dr_B_UNC said:
Or when Jeff Burton was running so well in the 31 and was accused of micro drilling holes in the tires like bleeder valves that would allow them to fire off for a run at optimal air pressure versus having to build up?
Click to expand...
That wasn't Burton, it was Newman in the 31 and that really did happen, they got caught by NASCAR. In the fall of 2014 the 31 made the final four and was fast every week, and continued to have speed into spring 2015. Then they got caught and their speed disappeared immediately and never came back.
 
Old 97 said:
I thought this was during the Newman era.

Didn't Smokey also get accused of the 7/8 thing with his 66 Chevelle?
Click to expand...
Yes Smokey had the 7/8th Chevelle. DW could have just been trying to play mind games with the Elliott claim he made or offering his best guess, I dunno.

In my opinion they had some trick going on Elliot's Thunderbird in 1985(again purely my opinion). They where zip codes ahead of everyone else. The Fords were faster on the big tracks that year but Elliot was also routinely faster than them as well.

It was all on the tracks a mile or bigger. I think they took an already superior aero Thunderbird and then found something else extra.
 
What's the '7/8th' trick? Do y'all mean the car was actually 7/8th smaller than what it should have measured? Wouldn't that have been visually obvious?
 
Charlie Spencer said:
What's the '7/8th' trick? Do y'all mean the car was actually 7/8th smaller than what it should have measured? Wouldn't that have been visually obvious?
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I don't know maybe an overstatement like 15/16ths or even 31/32nds etc. Maybe an original to measure is still around but a good cheater could also build a good in spec show car.
But I would believe it was more narrowed a little.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
What's the '7/8th' trick? Do y'all mean the car was actually 7/8th smaller than what it should have measured? Wouldn't that have been visually obvious?
Click to expand...
This link agrees with you

www.macsmotorcitygarage.com

The Truth About Smokey Yunick’s 7/8-scale Chevelle

For gearheads, Smokey Yunick is an American folk hero, a current-day Mike Fink or Molly Pitcher. His exploits are the stuff of myth and legend—take his notorious ’66 Chevelle, for examp…
www.macsmotorcitygarage.com www.macsmotorcitygarage.com
 
What Smokey did was put a belly pan under the car. In one of his talks that is what he said. He said if anybody would have looked under the car they wouldn't believe it.
The Elliott's were busted for having their Thunderbird one inch narrower than the real thing
 
StandOnIt said:
What Smokey did was put a belly pan under the car. In one of his talks that is what he said. He said if anybody would have looked under the car they wouldn't believe it.
The Elliott's were busted for having their Thunderbird one inch narrower than the real thing
Click to expand...
How long were the pushrods?
 
Greg said:
Yes Smokey had the 7/8th Chevelle. DW could have just been trying to play mind games with the Elliott claim he made or offering his best guess, I dunno.

In my opinion they had some trick going on Elliot's Thunderbird in 1985(again purely my opinion). They where zip codes ahead of everyone else. The Fords were faster on the big tracks that year but Elliot was also routinely faster than them as well.

It was all on the tracks a mile or bigger. I think they took an already superior aero Thunderbird and then found something else extra.
Click to expand...
In his autobiography, Bill said that they noticed something on Cale Yarborough's T Bird that year at the Winston Preview or whatever that event was called before Daytona: The spec was to put the Ford nose on and there was a "hump" or round joint to the fender in front of the tires. He noticed that Cale's nose was flush and a straight line from the Ford nose piece to the fender. He claimed that with that detail it helped the aero, and Ernie Elliott just built the best engines. Combine those and it was lethal on the speedways.
 
I enjoy the stories about cheating innovations. Keep in mind that all of these innovations turned the pamphlet of a rule book into volumes (I don't know how big the rule book is now).
 
I came across a couple F1 cheats:

An F1 innovation happened when they limited the fuel to one tank full, a team made the gas tank into a refrigerator to get a little more fuel.

F1 starts each race when the start lights turn off, a couple teams determined a radio signal turned the lights out, they monitored the signal to give them a reaction time edge.
 
Zerkfitting said:
An F1 innovation happened when they limited the fuel to one tank full, a team made the gas tank into a refrigerator to get a little more fuel.
Click to expand...
In 1984 Tyrrell used an infrerior naturally-aspirated engine. They installed an extra water tank to "cool the brakes". Shortly before the end of every race, Tyrrell drivers were called to the pits to fill this tank. However, they didn't fill it with water but with lead balls.
The Tyrrells were running way underweight during most of the race to compensate the lack of power from their engine. It didn't work, though. At the end of the season they were stripped of all results, including Stefan Bellof's third place in the famous rainy Monaco GP.
 
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