Absurd $200K Carl Long Penalty Upheld

If NASCAR was hoping the National Stock Car Racing Commission would bail them out of one of their biggest PR blunders in long while, it failed to do so.

The appeals board upheld the 12-race suspension and $200,000 fine against part-time and even smaller-time driver Carl Long after the driver-owner -- one who makes roughly $100,000 per year -- was found to have an engine that was roughly one-sixth of an inch too big of the 358 cubic inch limit during last month's All-Star Race.

In doing so, NASCAR either ended or completely changed the course of Carl Long's real job as an employee for another team and left the impression of being the big bad brother who forgot where he can from.

It's a story that many of you know by now and if you don't, here's a abridged summary.

Long decided to haul his race car to Lowe's Motor Speedway to compete in the Sprint Showdown, the qualifying race for the Sprint All-Star Challenge held three weeks ago. He didn't have a shot at winning -- something he knew -- and was trying just compete and take home a few bucks to finance his racing operation.

After previously filing the entry blank, Long arrived at the track to find out that NASCAR had changed the previously stated winnings amount for finishing last in the race. Instead of potentially pocketing $10k or so, Long's engine and other costs now outweighed what he was going earn.

Then, in Friday's practice for the race, he blew the now-famous engine.

NASCAR rules mandate each engine changed during a weekend is inspected by the sanctioning body, or the team can leave the track. Long, who managed just the 31st-fastest time of 35 cars during the practice session, felt nothing was illegal about his engine and allowed NASCAR to check it.

Long never saw the engine again because NASCAR confiscated it after measuring it and finding it to be .17 inches too big. An engine is measured based on volume of of the cylinders, meaning over the course of a NASCAR engine's eight cylinders, Long averaged a difference of roughly 1/48th of an inch.

And so, the gauntlet fell a few days later from NASCAR's penalty gurus.

There's no doubting that the rules are the rules in this case, and somehow NASCAR was able to measure such a minuscule difference to confirm the engine was oversize. But while numbers are black and white, the factors that can expand an engine block blur that to a gray area.

Remember, Long had blown the engine in practice, meaning that there was likely a ton of heat and pressure in the block. Add in the fact that the engine was purchased used from an engine supplier who had bought it used, and the conditions couldn't be more ideal to find an engine that had grown oversize (and according to Long, at least 50 horsepower less than his competition) by the slimmest of margins.

Those slim margins, it seems, will be costing Long part of his career.

Aside from driving, Long works for both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series sides of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team. The appeals board reinstated Long into the Nationwide garage, but left him to serve the 12-race penalty and pay the car owner fine before he gets back to the Cup garage.

Plus, he's down a race engine worth a few thousand bucks.

The appeals board did get it right in that they said they can't adjust penalties based on the size of a race team. You can't question that.

But what you can question is that Long had absolutely no intention to skirt the rules and that the alibi for the engine being bigger than it should was nearly faultless.

NASCAR's a sport that is built by black and white to find out who wins, but that is governed often by a large set of judgment calls. In this case, their judgment call and lack of flexibility to understand that Long wasn't trying to cheat just was plain wrong.

And for that, you've got to feel for a guy who does all he can to follow a dream of his to only have it all swept away.

By one-sixth of an inch.