NASCAR Nation by Chris Myers Page A

the space to zoom around as fast as they like. They don’t have to worry about wrecks or anyone getting in their way. Safety becomes less of a hindrance. As far as speed and safety are concerned, NASCAR has set up a fair ratio between the two, maxing out the speed while keeping the races as safe as possible. Yet still there are those who are tapped on the shoulder by their inner speed demons and can’t resist the urge to go beyond the limit. There’s always that temptation to out-do the competition, to go just a little faster.
    In theory, a car could easily be built to go well in excess of 200 miles per hour, assuming that the car makes few turns and is traveling in an unobstructed path the majority of the time. There’s nothing, save for restrictor plates and a set of stringent regulations, stopping teams from doing so. Like all sports and areas of competitiveness in our day and age, there are those who try to get ahead by cheating. Compared with the scandals that have affected some other sports, NASCAR has done a good job dealing with this issue. Since there is no union in NASCAR, officials have more control over the rules of the game and the punishments for violations. If they want to crack down, they crack down. They put the rules out there, and they enforce them the very best they can.We care about the sport and we don’t want to deal with a soured reputation.
    In this day and age of steroids, drivers are also being scrutinized for cheating by way of drug use. This baffles many NASCAR fans and outsiders alike. What could a driver possibly take to enhance their performance other than a cup of coffee? There is a list of banned drugs in NASCAR, including particular stimulants. Stimulants are essentially like coffee except much, much stronger. Of course, NASCAR also enforces a stringent anti-drug policy that strictly forbids the misuse or abuse of any drug. This was violated by Jeremy Mayfield when he tested positive for methamphetamine, which probably didn’t increase his ability to drive but did put him and other drivers on the track at risk. This was a very clear violation, but for a while people tried to give Mayfield the benefit of the doubt. Due to the many rules and regulations in NASCAR, sometimes while trying to navigate through confusing red tape or figuring out how to make a repair on a car in less than fourteen seconds, a certain amount of caution gets thrown to the wind. There just isn’t time to leaf through a manual when you’re going 180 miles per hour or jumping over the wall to fine-tune an engine. Just as with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and their recruiting rules, things come up. There are always new rules and restrictions that theteam might not have thought of, since NASCAR regulates everything from the height of the roof and the length of the bumper to the specifics of the engine.
    Through the course of a race, many pit stops are made. The parts of the car, which were carefully placed according to guidelines before the race, crumble, wear down or break. Teams have to come up with quick solutions under pressure. However, using illegal fuel or car parts, with full knowledge of its illegality, is cheating. That is treated with seriousness in NASCAR, and there’s no excuse for it.
    The body shop is where some of that monkey business goes on. If that’s the case, the driver is less involved and the fault could be placed mostly on the team or the crew chief. At times, NASCAR teams are like a board room of well-paid attorneys – they look for loopholes and see if they can squeeze through them. In some instances, the driver may not be aware what the team is doing. As the saying goes, he just wants the hamburger; he doesn’t care how you slaughter the cow. It can be hard to tell whether drivers are involved and how much to penalize them. It is plausible for a driver to deny responsibility for rule violations, especially if something was done