The stock car boys come back to Indianapolis this weekend, and because it's not the Brickyard 400 anymore, there might at least be a fighting chance NASCAR fans will stay awake to the finish. That's because they'll be running on the infield road course again, having realized (years too late, in the Blob's estimation) that the hallowed oval made for hollow racing.
That's not what has the Blob intrigued, however.
What has it intrigued is whether or not anyone will try to cheat, given what happened last weekend.
What happened was, NASCAR stripped Denny Hamlin of a win, and Kyle Busch of second place, when the post-race inspection revealed Joe Gibbs Racing was up to some shenanigans involving the nosecone of the car.
To say that ruffled a feather or two is an understatement. NASCAR, after all, hadn't disqualified a race winner in 62 years. And it's not because everyone stopped trying to pull fast ones in 1960.
On the contrary, cheating, or trying to, is practically a NASCAR tradition, complete with its own unofficial slogan ("If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'.") Car builder Smokey Yunick made his bones trying to shell-game NASCAR, including once fielding a perfect 7/8-scale Cup car. Various others have tried various other dodges, some of them quite inventive.
Most times they got caught. But NASCAR, especially once it became the 800-pound gorilla of American motorsport, was loathe to strip offenders of victories. Instead it just fined/suspended them and took points away.
Until last Sunday, that is.
Lots of folks complained about it, and even Chase Elliott, who never led a lap but wound up the race winner anyway, wasn't exactly ecstatic about his good fortune. But it's notable that JGR didn't utter a peep of protest, not even bothering to file an appeal.
So will NASCAR bringing the ultimate heat to beat the cheaters dissuade teams from further attempts to fool the inspectors?
Somewhere Smokey Yunick snickers.
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