Speaking of cheaters...

[JohnMickish]

Found this on Jayski's site agian. There is an article about the top 10 cheaters in NASCAR history. Jimmy Johnson and Chad Knaus didn't make the top ten, but this guy did.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The 2004 season alone puts Junior on this list. In October, in the middle of the first Chase for the Championship playoffs, NASCAR levied a $10,000 fine and a 25-point penalty when Dale Jr. used profanity in a live post-race interview. The loss of points dropped him out of first. Earlier in the season, Dale received the same penalty when he said in a post-race interview that he spun out on purpose at Bristol to bring out a caution. Then in November, Little E's crew chief was fined for having a windshield too thin.

If JJ is being branded a piece of dump because of what his crewchief did then what does this make JR? Anyways, it's a good article, you should check it out if you get the chance. It's more about the crewchiefs than the drivers but I say if one guy gets labeled cheater then all on this list are cheaters.

[wyldewal]

IMO they're all looking for a way to cheat. Some teams are just better at it and don't get caught. It's all about winning not necissarily playing fair so if they can get away with it they will try it. I'm not saying it's right and I'm sure there are a few "honest" teams out there, it's just part of racing.

[LMITOUT]

Wow, too thin of a windshield. That weight reduction could have been good for at least 4,5,6 wins.....glad they caught that. Gimmie a break. Hardly falls in the same catagory as adjusting the rear window height or shocks that don't compress. Keep reaching......

[JohnMickish]

I remember when that windshield got caught. It would deform at speed changing the aerodynamics of the vehicle. I thought it was a pretty neat trick. Anyways I didn't write the list, I just mearly posted it here for your viewing pleasure.

[LMITOUT]

Yeah, I read the article. Obviously a Hendrick apologist by the tone of his writing. It'd be one thing to list the top ten based on fines or points or some other measure, but he just grabbed specific offenses that had no merit in ranking the way he did.

On the other hand, it was interesting to read about some of the things teams did present and past to get around the rules. Very ingenious methods and thinking. What was the deal on Gordo's T-Rex car? I don't remember that one.

[JohnMickish]

That one ran at the Winston and since it wasn't a points race at that time they didn't have a serious tech before the race. That car royally kicked everyones butt. I mean it really was much faster than anything else out there, lap after lap. Something with the front suspension. NASCAR was not happy with it.

Junior Johnson had a ristricor engine combo that had a moveable part in the intake maniford. Jimmy Spenser won two races with that team. How do some guys think of this stuff?

[lawdog]

I don't remember the specifics of T-Rex either, but as I recall they couldn't actually find anything illegal about it, but they still wouldn't let them use it again because it was so different and clearly so much better. It really did haul the mail. Probably would be about run of the mill technology now the way things advance.

[PERCHJR]

SURPRISE, SURPRISE, Jr was brought up in UNI-BROWS cheating scandal!!! You got to be kidding me, didn't you hear that Knaus has been caught for cheating "7" times in the 4 or 5 yrs??? Oh yeah and Hendrick is such an angel also!!! Maybe they should re-evaluate there stupid to 10 list??? Next time when Jr has nothing to do with the situation leave him out of it, unless you get off on starting these arguments!!!

GOOD LUCK AND GOOD FISHING!!!

[JohnMickish]

I don't get off on it I just like to show people, like you, that when you call one guy a cheat, loser, or whatever and the win should be taken away because of what his crewchief did and your favorite driver has been caught in the same situation that you are in fact calling your driver a cheat, loser or whatever and his win should be taken away. Of course you won't see that though.

Remember Stewarts "X" measurement car? The one they took away from him? I wonder how many times they pushed the envelope on that before they crossed the line and got caught?

[PERCHJR]

I got yah know!!! Keep up the good reporting!!!

GOOD LUCK AND GOOD FISHING!!!

[JohnMickish]

On that list they had that 7/8ths scale car. Obviously that was before templates. I thought that was by far the best and lowest cheating act ever!

[lawdog]

Kind of funny, we talk about the T-rex car today and look what shows up in the middle of Marty Smith's column on NASCAR.com about Newman today:

T-Rex Stumped

As recently as 10 years ago, driver-feel inside the racecar was the end-all, be-all. Still is, for the most part, just doesn't take as long to acquire thanks to computer simulation technology.

Back then, teams took driver feedback from the previous event at a particular track, scribbled half-legibly on crumpled notepads, input it in the car and see if it still applied.

Then Hendrick Motorsports showed up at The Winston with the T-Rex car.

At that moment Rex Stump, HMS' lead engineer, single-handedly rewrote the book on race preparation.

That particular No. 24 Chevrolet was nearly a decade ahead of its time.

"It was a fully-engineered racecar. [stump] engineered and designed every part of that car to work, not even necessarily in the gray area, but even in areas they hadn't even thought about writing gray rules for, yet," said Matt Borland, Newman's crew chief.

"He really figured out the best way to build a racecar, and Ray [Evernham] had the confidence in him to go ahead and build that car and take it to a test, get it working, then ultimately race it."

The T-Rex car was so advanced that NASCAR seized it for its own education.

"I would say that Rex is really the guy that was ahead of the curve for engineering in the sport," Evernham said. "He started running simulations way before other guys came on board. And that goes back to Rick [Hendrick] being willing to start an engineering department when nobody else would.

"The sport would have changed anyway. It's got to as it gets faster, got to evolve. It was inevitable. Rex opened the door, but not a lot of people walked through it until the past four or five years."

Hello NASCAR engineering boom.

"Maybe it's more widely known now, but for sure Rex was the guy that spearheaded engineering in NASCAR," Borland said. "Everyone took notice when the T-Rex car showed up at Charlotte for The Winston race.

"We've tried to take the approach he does behind closed doors in the shop, and at the racetrack."