I said this yesterday. And Dave Moody had a great blog post about it last week.
In any other sport, there are consistent penalties to violating the rules. In NASCAR, when rules are broken, the teams are applauded. In the Chad Knaus situation last week, he was applauded for being innovative and playing games. In any other sport, Chad's behavior would be discouraged. And teams are always talking about pushing the envelope and looking for grey areas.
This is why NASCAR doesn't get respect from the mainstream. In every other sport, the rules are black and white. NASCAR deliberately leaves grey areas and has so many rules that can be interpreted in different ways. Take, the yellow line: A rule that has been interpreted so many different ways that it's pointless. Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin and Dale Jr are pretty much free to drive over the line. They've never been penalized for it before.
Then there's Sunday's deal with Keselowski: Speeding in between the scoring loops. This has gone on for years with Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch. Now everyone else is starting to do it. Instead of pointing out that a new system should be adopted, the commentators who lend themselves as the voice of the sport applauded Keselowski's blatant cheating. The yellow line rule was set up as a safety thing, in response to numerous injuries and deaths on pit road.
Does the NFL rulebook state that you can go out of bounds in between the 10 yard line and the end zone? Does the law say you can speed in between the speed limit signs? But NASCAR tells the teams where the scoring loops are, essentially winking an eye at them and encouraging them to speed.
I can't blame the teams -- again, they're doing everything they can to find a competitive advantage. In some cases, they're blatantly cheating, but if cheating is encouraged, why would they play within the rules?
You break the rules on a short track, you're DQ'd and you don't win anything. You cheat and win in NASCAR, you keep the win, most of your prize money and your trip to Charlotte.