Gibbs' Dave Rogers Owns Up to Cheating

Remember the cheating story that hit Joe Gibbs Racing like a ton of bricks after the Nationwide Series race at Michigan International Speedway in August? You know, the one involving magnets on pedals for the horsepower testing?

For those with short memories or lazy mouse-clicking fingers, the JGR Nationwide Series No. 18 and No. 20 cars were found to have magnets that prevented the throttle pedal from being fully depressed, leaving skewed numbers for NASCAR to examine during a post-race performance test.

It's a genius plan, really, and if it had worked, JGR and Toyota might have had a nice advantage in the series. But it didn't, and NASCAR wasn't too pleased. They showed it with heavy fines, suspensions and point deductions in the week that followed.

This week, though, JGR crew chief Dave Rogers -- who's still indefinitely suspended from NASCAR -- fully admitted to the cheating.

"I made a mistake, and I owned up to that mistake, and I didn't make excuses," said Rogers.

And for that, you've got to applaud him because it's not too often that NASCAR crew chiefs profess guilt instead of pleading innocence.

The infraction the team committed came on the heels of two important events facing the organization. First, they had the previous six races in Nationwide competition and second, NASCAR levied an engine modification against Toyota teams after they deemed NASCAR's newest manufacturer had a slight advantage in the second-tier series.

Rogers, and fellow suspended JGR crew chief Jason Ratcliff, were worried about losing that advantage and thus attempted the plot to skew NASCAR's data that is used to set policy and rules for each of the sanctioning body's racing series.

The penalities didn't effect JGR's Sprint Cup operation nor has NASCAR made any changes to the Toyota engine package in that top-tier series.

Rogers, Ratcliff and a whole bunch of other people faced some serious music from both NASCAR and the top brass of JGR after the serious violations were discovered, but to hear that they are remorseful for their actions is a little refreshing and hopefully won't derail their futures in the sport.