Cover-up in Gordon cheat scandal
Jeff Gordon didn't sleep well on Thursday night. Not necessarily because his car failed inspection following the second of two 150-mile qualifying races, but because he was worried people might think his team deliberately cheated. That's understandable in a week in which five crew chiefs and one vice president for competition have been suspended since Tuesday. "That's what's bothered me the most," Gordon said. "It's what kept me up all night. People are going to think we did something to circumvent the rules." NASCAR determined that a parts failure resulted in the rear quarter panel of Gordon's #24 Chevrolet being too low. [Editor's Note: OK, it has been determined as fact that the car was too low and that aero advantage in NASCAR is significant. Every team would love to run their car lower.]
Because it was deemed unintentional and gave Gordon no competitive advantage, the penalty was light. Gordon was forced to move from the second to last row — 42nd in the 43-car field — for Sunday's Daytona 500. "It's easy if you just say the car was low," said Gordon, a three-time Daytona 500 champion. "But the car wasn't low on the racetrack. [Editor's Note: Jeff Gordon is lying through his teeth. He wants us to believe that on the race track the car was the correct height and that the part broke after the race as the car was being rolled to the inspection line and it dropped one inch. Were three 350 pound NFL linemen jumping up and down on his car after the race, thereby breaking his shock mount?]
That's why the penalty is what it is. If NASCAR felt like it was any more than that we'd be in the same position as those other guys. I wouldn't have a crew chief right now. We'd have our points fined and a monetary fine." Gordon had reason to be concerned others would question his team's motives. #31-Jeff Burton of Richard Childress Racing was so concerned that he went to the NASCAR hauler to see what part was confiscated. "It's my opinion what happened to the 24 is just a screw-up," Burton said. "The part was beat up pretty badly. It wasn't machined to work that way. It was seen by me as an honest mistake." [Editor's Note: OK, so we have established that the part was "beat up pretty badly." Those three 350 pound NFL linemen that were jumping up and down on Gordon's car while it was waiting in line to be inspected must have beat the living daylights out of that shock mount for it to break like that. Of course no one was on Gordon's car and Gordon was not in an accident. What probably happened is that before the race a crewman beat the sh&% out of the part so that it would be weakened and break during the race so the car would drop one inch.]
"From what I've seen, it wasn't a performance advantage. I think the punishment met the crime." Gordon said it will be a challenge going from the back to the front, but not one he can't overcome. "We're going to have to have a real good handling race car and also a fast race car," Gordon said before Friday's practice. "We're going to take not too much speed out of that car and really get the car to handling." Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president for competition, said no further penalties would be levied against Gordon's team. ESPN.com