Top five cheaters in NASCAR history
Ryan McGee
FOXSports.com,
Cheater (CHEET-er), noun:
1. one who defrauds or swindles.
2. one who deceives, influences by fraud.
3. one who violates rules or agreements, takes action in a dishonest way.
4. one who must eat pumpkin if caught.
Cheater. It's such an ugly word, but it is a term that is tossed around with reckless abandon when it comes to the world of NASCAR. Why? Because each and every race weekend is spent wrapped up in a murky, deceptive game of chess. The men that build and drive the racecars spent all week trying to find a word or a phrase in the rulebook that allows them to slide one toe over the line drawn in the sand... and the men on NASCAR's payroll are employed for no reason other than to make sure that same line stays in tact.
In other sports, cheating is much more clearly defined. Sammy Sosa corked a bat, therefore he is a cheater. The 1919 Chicago White Sox took a bunch of money and threw the World Series. Cheaters. Southern Methodist University passed out c-notes to college football players like they were flyers outside a strip joint. Cheaters.
Whether you agree with them or not, all of the above were busted because there were very specific rules concerning each infraction. The governing rules of the NCAA alone fill up entire file cabinets in the hallways of every college athletic department.
Not so in NASCAR.
At 184 pages, the 2007 edition of the NASCAR Nextel Cup rulebook is nearly twice as long as it was two years ago (96 pages long), but it's still not much wider or longer than a checkbook. The fact that every roll bar, rear view mirror, and rocker arm is covered within such a small amount of type means one thing... a lot of room for, ahem, "interpretation".
"I think that's our job," says Robbie Loomis, a Petty Enterprises vice president who was a big league crew chief from 1991-2005. "To find those areas of interpretation, the gray areas, and do just that. Interpret. There is a lot less room in there to find an advantage than there used to be, but that's part of the challenge."
So, who were (or are) the greatest cheaters in the nearly six-decade history of this sport that we all so dearly love? Glad you asked... and no, Chad Knaus did not make the list. But he's one more suspension away from joining our gang of five.
5. Robin Pemberton
A crew chief from 1985 through 2001, Pemberton makes the list for no reason other than the fact that he holds the distinction of being the most monetarily penalized single mechanic in NASCAR history. On the list of NASCAR's top ten biggest fines, Pemberton shows up three different times for a total of $85,000.
The biggest of those penalties came in 1990, when a carburetor spacer plate was found in Mark Martin's car following a win at Richmond in late February. The dime part cost Pemberton 40 large. The team was also docked 46 points, which hurt more than a little when Martin ended up losing the championship to Dale Earnhardt by only 26 points in November.
What's Pemberton up to now? He's on the NASCAR payroll as VP of Competition. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?
4. Ray Evernham
Evernham has only been busted big-time once — officially. During his first title run as Jeff Gordon's crew chief in 1995, Ray was fined $60,000 for using "illegal suspension" parts in the 24 car at Charlotte.
Penalties at a glance
There was another time, however, that happened so fast and so quietly that it got very little attention at the time. Evernham and Gordon won The Winston all-star race in 1997 with a car that was so radical in its chassis design and construction that the team was told to tear it apart and never bring anything like it back to the track ever.
So, what was so radical about it?
Evernham looks confused at the question. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Yeah, right.
Evernham's legacy of experimentation is still alive and well at Hendrick Motorsports, despite the fact that he left the team seven years ago. Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson are making sure of that. Meanwhile, having all three crew chiefs sent home from Daytona this year is one of the most delicious tales in cheating history. But even that triple play wasn't enough to crack our triumverate of tricksters.
3. Gary Nelson
When Nelson hung up his crew chief clipboard to become NASCAR's top rules enforcer in the mid-1990's, his former competitors were up in arms.
"It's like letting one of the inmates run the asylum," said Darrell Waltrip at the time.
Nelson had made his name as an "innovator" with DiGard Racing and Bobby Allison in the early 1980's and later on the payroll of Hendrick Motorsports, working with Geoff Bodine and DW himself. Nelson was a master of the gray area. During Allison's 1983 title run, NASCAR was so sure that Nelson was hiding extra fuel somewhere in Allison's car it was torn apart twice during the season. Nothing was found.
Nelson is also given credit for one of the most infamous inventions in NASCAR history — a device that emptied lead buckshot hidden inside the roll cage when the driver pulled a lever inside the ****pit, thus lightening the weight of a car during a race. It is a story that has become legendary, even outside of the garage.
During an online chat session a couple of years ago, the validity of the "bombs away" story was asked by a fan to Nelson himself. His response? "My memory is becoming fuzzy on that. Next question."
2. Junior Johnson
What else do you expect from a man who got his start outrunning "revenuers" on the backroads of North Carolina? Johnson won 50 Cup races as a driver and 140 as a car owner. From 1953 to 1995, Johnson and NASCAR stood nose-to-nose waiting on the other to blink first.
Big gas cans, using lighter weight metals during engine construction, cars that pushed the outer limits of legal aerodynamics... they all originated in Wilkes County, North Carolina in Johnson's shop. Leaning on knowledge gained from hauling moonshine through the mountains, his cars always seemed to have a few more horses under the hood than the competition.
In 1966, he showed up at Atlanta with a car that was supposed to be a Ford, but looked like nothing that had ever come out of Detroit. Nicknamed "The Banana" because of its Holly Farms yellow paint scheme, it amazingly still fit into NASCAR's templates. The Banana ran one race before NASCAR told Johnson to never bring it back again.
Twenty-five years later, Johnson and crew chief Mike Beam were suspended for 12 weeks for using an illegal carburetor in Tommy Ellis's car at Charlotte (it was reduced to four weeks after an appeal). And in 1995, Johnson went out in style with a $45,000 fine for using an illegal intake manifold in Brett Bodine's car at Daytona.
You know, Jeff Hammond always says that everything he learned about racing came from Junior. Hmmmmm.
1. Smokey Yunick
The only thing that Yunick did better than bend the rules was use cuss words. A high school dropout, the Daytona Beach resident possessed one of the most brilliant automotive minds of the 20th century, and never hesitated from using it to his advantage on Sunday afternoons.
In his three-volume autobiography published shortly after his death in 2001, he even addressed what he believed was cheating and what was not. In the volume dedicated to NASCAR, entitled "All Right You Sons-a-Bitches, Let's Have a Race", he estimates that by 1970 over half of the NASCAR rulebook was dedicated solely to him. He is also quick to point this out as one of the great accomplishments of his life.
Operating in the gray areas of the rulebook, Yunick says, is not cheating. However, there are four things that he considers "real cheating": 1. Using a big engine. 2. Using a big gas tank. 3. Using expensive exotic materials to save weight. 4. Very expensive aerodynamic rule violations.
"Now, three and four," he wrote. "I consider more 'chicken s---' than cheating... Big engines and big gas tanks, I have no mental tolerance for. What brains does that take?"
And that's how you become the best cheater ever, young mechanics. Violate the honor code... with honor all the while.
Dishonorable Mentions
Tony Furr (three fines of $25,000 or more and a four-race suspension)
Glenn Dunnaway (had the first win in NASCAR history taken away for illegal rear springs)
Chad Knaus (three penalties of $25,000 or more, three separate multi-race suspensions)
Ryan McGee
FOXSports.com,
Cheater (CHEET-er), noun:
1. one who defrauds or swindles.
2. one who deceives, influences by fraud.
3. one who violates rules or agreements, takes action in a dishonest way.
4. one who must eat pumpkin if caught.
Cheater. It's such an ugly word, but it is a term that is tossed around with reckless abandon when it comes to the world of NASCAR. Why? Because each and every race weekend is spent wrapped up in a murky, deceptive game of chess. The men that build and drive the racecars spent all week trying to find a word or a phrase in the rulebook that allows them to slide one toe over the line drawn in the sand... and the men on NASCAR's payroll are employed for no reason other than to make sure that same line stays in tact.
In other sports, cheating is much more clearly defined. Sammy Sosa corked a bat, therefore he is a cheater. The 1919 Chicago White Sox took a bunch of money and threw the World Series. Cheaters. Southern Methodist University passed out c-notes to college football players like they were flyers outside a strip joint. Cheaters.
Whether you agree with them or not, all of the above were busted because there were very specific rules concerning each infraction. The governing rules of the NCAA alone fill up entire file cabinets in the hallways of every college athletic department.
Not so in NASCAR.
At 184 pages, the 2007 edition of the NASCAR Nextel Cup rulebook is nearly twice as long as it was two years ago (96 pages long), but it's still not much wider or longer than a checkbook. The fact that every roll bar, rear view mirror, and rocker arm is covered within such a small amount of type means one thing... a lot of room for, ahem, "interpretation".
"I think that's our job," says Robbie Loomis, a Petty Enterprises vice president who was a big league crew chief from 1991-2005. "To find those areas of interpretation, the gray areas, and do just that. Interpret. There is a lot less room in there to find an advantage than there used to be, but that's part of the challenge."
So, who were (or are) the greatest cheaters in the nearly six-decade history of this sport that we all so dearly love? Glad you asked... and no, Chad Knaus did not make the list. But he's one more suspension away from joining our gang of five.
5. Robin Pemberton
A crew chief from 1985 through 2001, Pemberton makes the list for no reason other than the fact that he holds the distinction of being the most monetarily penalized single mechanic in NASCAR history. On the list of NASCAR's top ten biggest fines, Pemberton shows up three different times for a total of $85,000.
The biggest of those penalties came in 1990, when a carburetor spacer plate was found in Mark Martin's car following a win at Richmond in late February. The dime part cost Pemberton 40 large. The team was also docked 46 points, which hurt more than a little when Martin ended up losing the championship to Dale Earnhardt by only 26 points in November.
What's Pemberton up to now? He's on the NASCAR payroll as VP of Competition. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?
4. Ray Evernham
Evernham has only been busted big-time once — officially. During his first title run as Jeff Gordon's crew chief in 1995, Ray was fined $60,000 for using "illegal suspension" parts in the 24 car at Charlotte.
Penalties at a glance
There was another time, however, that happened so fast and so quietly that it got very little attention at the time. Evernham and Gordon won The Winston all-star race in 1997 with a car that was so radical in its chassis design and construction that the team was told to tear it apart and never bring anything like it back to the track ever.
So, what was so radical about it?
Evernham looks confused at the question. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Yeah, right.
Evernham's legacy of experimentation is still alive and well at Hendrick Motorsports, despite the fact that he left the team seven years ago. Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson are making sure of that. Meanwhile, having all three crew chiefs sent home from Daytona this year is one of the most delicious tales in cheating history. But even that triple play wasn't enough to crack our triumverate of tricksters.
3. Gary Nelson
When Nelson hung up his crew chief clipboard to become NASCAR's top rules enforcer in the mid-1990's, his former competitors were up in arms.
"It's like letting one of the inmates run the asylum," said Darrell Waltrip at the time.
Nelson had made his name as an "innovator" with DiGard Racing and Bobby Allison in the early 1980's and later on the payroll of Hendrick Motorsports, working with Geoff Bodine and DW himself. Nelson was a master of the gray area. During Allison's 1983 title run, NASCAR was so sure that Nelson was hiding extra fuel somewhere in Allison's car it was torn apart twice during the season. Nothing was found.
Nelson is also given credit for one of the most infamous inventions in NASCAR history — a device that emptied lead buckshot hidden inside the roll cage when the driver pulled a lever inside the ****pit, thus lightening the weight of a car during a race. It is a story that has become legendary, even outside of the garage.
During an online chat session a couple of years ago, the validity of the "bombs away" story was asked by a fan to Nelson himself. His response? "My memory is becoming fuzzy on that. Next question."
2. Junior Johnson
What else do you expect from a man who got his start outrunning "revenuers" on the backroads of North Carolina? Johnson won 50 Cup races as a driver and 140 as a car owner. From 1953 to 1995, Johnson and NASCAR stood nose-to-nose waiting on the other to blink first.
Big gas cans, using lighter weight metals during engine construction, cars that pushed the outer limits of legal aerodynamics... they all originated in Wilkes County, North Carolina in Johnson's shop. Leaning on knowledge gained from hauling moonshine through the mountains, his cars always seemed to have a few more horses under the hood than the competition.
In 1966, he showed up at Atlanta with a car that was supposed to be a Ford, but looked like nothing that had ever come out of Detroit. Nicknamed "The Banana" because of its Holly Farms yellow paint scheme, it amazingly still fit into NASCAR's templates. The Banana ran one race before NASCAR told Johnson to never bring it back again.
Twenty-five years later, Johnson and crew chief Mike Beam were suspended for 12 weeks for using an illegal carburetor in Tommy Ellis's car at Charlotte (it was reduced to four weeks after an appeal). And in 1995, Johnson went out in style with a $45,000 fine for using an illegal intake manifold in Brett Bodine's car at Daytona.
You know, Jeff Hammond always says that everything he learned about racing came from Junior. Hmmmmm.
1. Smokey Yunick
The only thing that Yunick did better than bend the rules was use cuss words. A high school dropout, the Daytona Beach resident possessed one of the most brilliant automotive minds of the 20th century, and never hesitated from using it to his advantage on Sunday afternoons.
In his three-volume autobiography published shortly after his death in 2001, he even addressed what he believed was cheating and what was not. In the volume dedicated to NASCAR, entitled "All Right You Sons-a-Bitches, Let's Have a Race", he estimates that by 1970 over half of the NASCAR rulebook was dedicated solely to him. He is also quick to point this out as one of the great accomplishments of his life.
Operating in the gray areas of the rulebook, Yunick says, is not cheating. However, there are four things that he considers "real cheating": 1. Using a big engine. 2. Using a big gas tank. 3. Using expensive exotic materials to save weight. 4. Very expensive aerodynamic rule violations.
"Now, three and four," he wrote. "I consider more 'chicken s---' than cheating... Big engines and big gas tanks, I have no mental tolerance for. What brains does that take?"
And that's how you become the best cheater ever, young mechanics. Violate the honor code... with honor all the while.
Dishonorable Mentions
Tony Furr (three fines of $25,000 or more and a four-race suspension)
Glenn Dunnaway (had the first win in NASCAR history taken away for illegal rear springs)
Chad Knaus (three penalties of $25,000 or more, three separate multi-race suspensions)
