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Debbi Willis, Daw613@bigfoot.com

Grace and Class

Recently, Jeremy Mayfield's team suffered some of the worst penalties ever handed down by Nascar for a fuel additive infraction and a dented roofline. Jeff Gordon must be somewhat relieved to be finally free of that dubious distinction for being the recipient of the highest fines levied against him and Ray Evernham during his glory days! Nascar official, Mike Helton was quoted as comparing it to childhood spankings, "The first two whacks were for what I did and the last one was so I wouldn't do it again." Puh-leez! Exactly WHAT is his point? Did he usually get punished several weeks after an incident? Is Mike saying the "last one" that being the roof denting incident which seemed to come from his victory celebration (and if it didn't, how did their inspectors miss it?) was so he wouldn't do it again? Is there a control issue here? Unnaturally, this has probably been one of the more high profile situations in the history of Nascar's 'modern era' racing. I don't recall Jeff Gordon ever being made such an example in public as has been in this ludicrous scenario. I've listened and watched and waited like all of Mayfield's team and fans did waiting for what seemed an eternity, for the mighty Nascar's other foot to drop! Daily reports of trying to evaluate this properly, make the right decision, decide what needs to be done etc continually filtered into the media like little PR leaks for some sensational story! Didn't Nascar realize there's MORE harm in all those speculative leaks than there is in the simple rule enforcing decision?

There's an old story told a million ways but with the same message often used to teach children the harm in misspeaking of others. The story is about a good man with a good business in a small town who didn't satisfy someone exactly the way they wanted the business done and the dissatisfied person began to spread the "word" about this businessman. As the word spread, it was further embellished as "spread word" usually is from one person to another and eventually the businessman's business began to suffer because of the opinion brought about by one person's dissatisfaction. But one day, a person who had continued to spread the word though he'd had no personal encounters with this businessman, really needed his services and called upon the businessman to do the work for him. Everything was of the highest quality, excellent service and most pleasant experience. He continued to do business with him thereafter and one day felt so guilty about having "spread the word" that he confessed to him what he'd been part of. He begged the businessman to tell him what to do to undo the harm.

The business man told him he could take a feather pillow up the highest peak in town and cut it open and release the feathers to the wind. This person was clearly confused now, but did as he was told and returned to the businessman to ask why, and what good did it do? The businessman replied that now he could go an pick up every single feather he had let go to the wind, and if he could get them all, then he'd have been able to undo the damage! Naturally, this was an impossibility and the person realized that the harm he'd truly done could never be undone and now he would know to watch how he speaks before he ever misspoke of someone again. Nascar, in their overcautious wisdom, unwittingly did the same thing to the entire Mayfield team as well as Rusty Wallaces team and the Penske name. By releasing little blurbs hinting of some major infraction, Nascar made the situation far worst than it was. Was it that there wasn't enough money in the Penske operation budgeted to cover up potential problems like this (as there seemed to be when Gordon's additive discussions occured) or was it that not knowing about the illegal substance, or the lone member's stupid move, the whole team and Penske operation didn't see a necessity to cover anything up or dispute it? Admirably, the Kranefuss/Penske team shouldered the whole mess with the grace and class befitting a winning team. They didn't expose the lone member and feed him to the media wolves. They didn't make all kinds of accusations and noise back at Nascar for enforcing a rule they thought they complied with. They didn't even whine afterwards about it. They apologized to Nascar, to their fans, to their sponsors, to everyone! That's some serious class in that organization.

And then, Nascar turned around and "spanked" them one more time for good measure with the roof violation. A violation that by all rights CANNOT occur after the pre-race inspection, the post happy hour checks, the whole template checks process with securely guarded garages between track times and constant watchful eye of Nascar's finest inspectors. Likewise, the inconsistency of having to redesign Dale Earnhardts rear quarters to meet inspection criteria at Talledega with the same car that passed it all at Daytona didn't make much sense either but sure brought the media attention to the 3 car and the whispers of "cheating". Was so much fuss ever made over the multitude of blatant violations Gordon was assessed during he and Ray's winning years? Clearly, inconsistency prevails, and this is Nascar's achilles heel.

I've read this is the usual Nascar cycle of cracking down on the violations game between Nascar and the teams, but I don't buy it. Granted Nascar needs to be enforcing the rules. Granted the rules are basically clear and the teams know their limits. And, it's a given today that everyone will try to push those limits to find their own personal gray areas of success, another norm set by the Gordon glory days. However, Nascar needs to consider their responsibility in these matters and not tarnish good names, or create media fodder and fuel competitive fans against each other over these violations. I'm more inclined to beleive Nascar is more interested in control, they sure liked the parity over the first 10 races. Nascar needs to show the same class the whole Mayfield team did. My hat's off to Roger Penske for not wielding the power he could have during this fiasco, to Jeremy Mayfield for accepting his role in the teams success and failures and standing with his team all the way, and to Kranefuss and the whole team for openly shouldering the blame of not knowing every members actions and accepting the consequences gracefully. Hopefully, now, the media will let go of this sorry situation and move on with no more comments regarding this incident during future races.

Disclaimer: By no means or with the farthest stretch of the imagination am I condoning any cheating, rules infractions or even ''gray areas'. However, the manner in which any organization conducts itself eventually reflects upon everyone and if it becomes a media/marketing/news game, everyone in the sport suffers. Talk radio debated this subject, and national sports news carried the topic for weeks of speculation. Some folks think any news is good exposure, but is it?

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