NASCAR: Cheating is part of the job in NASCAR

Former NASCAR driver and now TV Analyst, Clint Bowyer, clearly sees no point in trying to mask the shadier aspects of NASCAR.

In an interview with The Athletic in 2019, the current Fox Sports analyst talked about how certain NASCAR teams cheat the inspection rules to give their drivers the best advantage come race day. Is that technically cheating? Yep. But, according to Bowyer, cheating is pretty much part of the job.

“That’s the craziest thing about it — it is cheating, right? It’s whatever,” Bowyer said. “But it’s what [crew chiefs] do for a living. If they don’t, you cannot have success. If you’re not pushing over the line — not to the line, but over the line — you’re going to be behind somebody that is willing to do that.”

“It’s such a tricky thing, right? You want a fair and even playing field, and I feel like I do have that. Every time I get on a racetrack, I don’t feel like somebody’s completely out of bounds. And when they are, I think it shows up very obvious. That being said, I think that’s some of the more interesting, neat things about our sport, is those guys’ ability to outfox Johnny Law.”

“That’s literally what they’re doing. But that’s what they get paid to do, and they’re all extremely intelligent people, too. This isn’t like ol’ Joe Blow off the street, uneducated nothing. They have massive amounts of experience doing this. There are highly educated people that are going to bat. And the sanctioning body is trying to keep up with these boys. That’s a tall order.”

According to Bowyer, the fewer people that know about what exactly a stock car is working with, “the better off you’re going to be.” Hey, we’ll take your word for it, Clint.

Junior Johnson’s said, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.”

Darrell Waltrip said: “If you don’t cheat, you look like an idiot; if you cheat and don’t get caught, you look like a hero; if you cheat and get caught, you look like a dope.”