NASCAR to meet with owners, drivers, crew chiefs (Update)
Dear Rick, There are a lot of things that can alter the outcome of a race. NASCAR has defined what they expect from their drivers and teams, and the penalties if they get caught. However, there will always be ways to beat the system and potentially not get caught. So will a driver slow down ever so slightly to let a teammate past to get the points he needs? Of course, but they need to do it on their own, or have some secret code in a message so as not to get caught. What happened in Richmond was just plain stupidity. The way drivers and teams manipulated the results was very easy to detect. Mark C.
09/14/13 For the second time in five days, NASCAR has changed the makeup of the Chase for the Sprint Cup due to manipulation of the sport's regular-season finale. Saturday, officials will hold a meeting with drivers, owners, and crew chiefs with the goal of never having to alter the playoff again. [Penalties this week led] NASCAR to call a mandatory meeting of drivers, owners and crew chiefs Saturday at Chicagoland "to hopefully to address and make more clear the path going forward as it applies to the rules of racing and the ethical part of it," according to NASCAR President Mike Helton.
Teammates have always helped one another on the race track, abiding by a set of unspoken and undefined guidelines that have produced long-accepted tactics like allowing a driver to get a lap back, or allowing a driver to lead a lap to collect a bonus point. But with the championship field at stake, those actions become magnified — which was certainly the case at Richmond, where Bowyer spun suspiciously on his own and Vickers pitted unexpectedly on the final restart, opening the door for Truex to collect a Chase berth.
"We're going to have as much clarity to where the line is, and obviously we drew a line Monday night with the penalties with Michael Waltrip Racing," France said. "So obviously what we're going to do is & no matter what it takes, the integrity of the sport will never be in question. And that's what we're going to make sure, that we have the right rules going forward that are clear so that the integrity of the competitive landscape of the events are not altered in a way or manipulated. And that will be what we will be addressing."
The meeting will be part of a process that will entail "clarifying in a significant way the rules of racing and the rules of the road going forward," France added. He said the sanctioning body wants suggestions from competitors on how to do that. NASCAR.com