Gibbs' In-House Penalites Reflect Quite Well

For once, NASCAR seems to have stepped up to the plate in regards to issuing penalties for cheating in the sport.

As you know, Wednesday brought the news from NASCAR of the stiff backhand that the sanctioning body inflicted on the team members of Joe Gibbs Racing's two Nationwide Series teams who were caught cheating last Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.

The penalties included indefinite suspensions for both crew chiefs of the No. 18 and No. 20 cars (Jason Ratcliff and Dave Rogers) as well as five other team members involved in the illicit tampering of the post-race competition testing analysis NASCAR performed Saturday. The term "indefinite" -- to the best of my knowledge -- has never been used by NASCAR for a performance-related suspension.

Point deductions to the tune of 150 driver and owner points for the cars driven by Tony Stewart and Joey Logano were also inflicted, as well as monetary fines to the crew chiefs.

The biggest impact, I think, comes from what the Joe Gibbs Racing team has done about the matter. They've already confirmed that the team members in question will be suspended for at least the remainder of the season and that they will each face internal fines from the company that will be paid directly from their pocket.

The in-house suspensions will be especially critical to the crew chiefs Ratcliff and Rogers because of how much they've improved their stock in 2008 as potential Sprint Cup crew chiefs. Now, these two guys will be sitting at home while their teams compete for wins and championships, leaving them out of the loop and out of the chance to show off their pit box talents.

I would have expected that Rogers would have an offer to be a Sprint Cup crew chief in 2009, but with these violations, his stock has dropped and you can bet darn well that the meeting between the now-suspended crew chiefs after the incident with team owner Joe Gibbs and team president J.D. Gibbs wasn't exactly a back-slapping session.

Can you imagine how sick those guys feel this week? Just like that, their chances at promotion and moving up in NASCAR took a big, big hit.

Generally, a team is not only denying when it has cheated, but it also pays for the penalized crew member's infraction instead of shifting some of that focus on the personal finances of its employees -- both of which have shown how seriously JGR is taking this.

Of course, failing to take this seriously and failing to act on the misdeeds of your employees certainly would allow the rumor mill of what happened on Saturday at Michigan just to increase ten-fold as fans and other teams look at the team as a whole -- from the Nationwide operations to the Sprint Cup operation -- as just big team of cheaters that haven't gotten caught yet.

Instead, JGR was smart. They not only told their team that cheating would not be tolerated in any regards, but they also sent a message to the NASCAR world that cheating is not going to take place under the confines of the JGR banner.

It was simply damage control at its finest, and JGR executed it quite well.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-21-2008 @ 6:09PM

Don Emerson said...

Those Toyota motors must still be cranking out some major horsepower if they went to such lengths to try and hide it. And what a start in Nascar for the folks at Toyota. First the jet fuel incident with Michael Waldrip, and now this. I wonder if these incidents are brought about by pressure from Toyota, or from pressure they themselves feel to produce results to justify all the money thrown at them. Either way, Toyota isn't getting their money's worth. Sure they're winning races, but you've got to believe their stock with the racing fans and car buying public is taking a beating in terms of integrity. Winning at all costs is a heavy price to pay in eyes of most people and usually results in a low opinion of you and your methods. Then too. if they try to take all these shortcuts in building their race cars, you can't help but wonder what shortcuts they might have used in producing the cars they sell to the public. The fever to be number 1 in racing just might translate into a fever to be number 1 in sales. Works for me.....

8-21-2008 @ 7:25PM

anna seitter said...

EMERSON, TOYOTA already is the #1 vehicles seller in USA
for few years now. wors for me....

8-22-2008 @ 1:28AM

You may be right Anna, but if they are #1, how bad do they want to stay there, and what will they do to keep it. Works for me.....too

8-22-2008 @ 9:19AM

Chuck said...

The penalties handed out to the JGR teams reflects that Nascar wanted to get rid of the men who made the Joe Gibbs cars go fast. If this is the correct way of doing things, Chad Knaus should have been banned from racing for life by now. The Nascar dictators terrorize some teams and coddle others. Is this their sense of fairness. Maybe they are the guilty party who put the magnets in the Gibbs cars.

8-22-2008 @ 4:44PM

Kevin said...

Hey Chuck, you are probably right. After all, look at all the stuff Tony Stewart has said over the years, and the grief he's gotten for it, as opposed to the stuff other drivers have said, and the grief they HAVE'NT gotten for it. NASCAR Corporate is extremely biased!!

8-23-2008 @ 6:04PM

byron said...

I may be stupid,but just do magnets do to the performace of a racecar????

8-24-2008 @ 7:29AM

Hunkster said...

My oldest son ( 40) is big into nascar racing..he said the magnet allows them too pull more horsepower on the track than the engine is showing on the dyno test actually.......
otherwards a sneaky way of cheating underneath.....

8-24-2008 @ 8:34PM

MAGNETS DOES NOT DO ANYTHING for a race car performance. The GIBBS magnets were installed on tha gas pedal after the race and not while or before.
The stupid idea of the gibbs mechanics was to lower the engines HP reading on the DYNO TEST in post race inspection. That's all.

8-26-2008 @ 1:10PM

Patrick Hill said...

anna seitter sounds like a tumble bug rep

8-28-2008 @ 12:28PM

Bernie said...

The more I thought this through the more I believe that at this level of the game of beating, bending, dismantling of the rule book to have an edge on the competition is to be expected. They all have cheated at some point and will do whatever it takes to be number one. Cheating has been the topic of conversation in the past even before Toyota was involved in Nascar. When Dodge came into the sport year ago they had the same accusations made without consequence.

I don't think this will have an impact on commercial sales either, this is an internal Nascar issue generated by a highly influential group in Nascar that does not feel the need for Toyota in the sport.

Technically they didn't cheat they disobeyed orders! They followed a spec that nascar gave them as well as the rest resulting in one that produced more HP with their method of engineering! That is not cheating until someone cries a river so deep that Nascar had to put an end to the flood. They did a great job and got shafted, that's how good work is rewarded
It all sucks because it gives all the haters something really neat to talk about doesn't it? Can't wait to see a Toyota with the Championship trophy! GO Kyle Busch! YEE HAW!