Someone explain the 'its ok to CHEAT in Nascar' additude.

The all time master of "creative rule interpretation" has to be Smokey Yunick.

The following is from

Smokey Yunick The Unique
Remembering Racing’s Legendary Iconoclast

By C.J. Baker

Yunick was either a crafty, devious, underhanded, rule-bending, no-good, cheating SOB (one view), or a master of ability, hard work, careful preparation, common sense, and the scientific approach (the other). Smokey’s M.O. was simple: If the rulebook didn’t specifically outlaw this or that, then it was OK to do this or that. No porting or polishing was allowed, so he would paint the ports with hard lacquer and sand them to a mirror finish. Or he would pump an abrasive slurry through the intake manifold runners to remove the lumps and bumps. NASCAR said no boring or stroking, but there was no rule against offset cranks. There was a rule against using lightweight flywheels, but there wasn’t a rule that prohibited removing the ring gear, laterally drilling lightening holes in the flywheel, then reinstalling the ring gear. “All those other guys were cheatin’ ten times worse than us,” remembered Yunick, “so it was just self-defense.”

Smokey’s ongoing troubles with NASCAR over his getting competitive reached its zenith in 1968. Yunick blamed both Ford and Chrysler for putting so much pressure on France that he had his tech inspectors overscrutinize his super- slippery Chevelles. Legend has it that when Smokey’s ’68 Chevelle picked up its sixteenth violation, he got in the car and drove it back to his garage, in Daytona, with the fuel tank still sitting in the inspection area. His parting shot was, “make it 17.” Two years later, Smokey said adios to NASCAR and was out of stock car racing

 

It's not illegal, until you get caught.

All forms of racing "cheat". All cheating is, is having an advantage that the others don't. So long as that advantage doesn't break the rules, I don't consider it cheating.

In a nut shell, "cheating" is development. If you can invent something the other guy doesn't have, then your ahead that much more. The rules just make it harder and hard. So the cheating/development gets more and more creative.

 

In the beginning, Can-Am had a solution to all the issues of not abiding by the rules, there were no rules! (well, almost no rules)! And it was an awesome show!

A quote from Michael Stucker on the Can-Am.. "Can-Am cars were classified as Group 7 racers by the International Motorsport Federation (FIA). Group 7 racers had very few restrictions placed on them. (Restrictions were added over the years, but it was pretty much an "open" formula.) No maximum engine size or turbocharger boost limits. No minimum weight. No tire limitations. No structure or material limitations. (Both monocoque and tube frame chassis were used.) The cars did have to be open-cockpit, closed-bodied cars with two seats and two doors."

 

Or Junior Johnson, with his "Yellow Banana" Galaxy

 

This lack of rules is what caused Penske to create the 917/30 which killed can-am. It had something like 1400 hp, i maybe wrong, but it was over 1000 easy. I saw this car at the autoshow one year with no one watching it, i was agasht. I took a pic of me sitting on it, which i have here somewhere, lol

 

Sitting on the 917/30 The lack of security at the NYC autoshow was disturbing, lol
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Penske also found a loop hole in the USAC rules for the Indy 500 remember the MB pushrod "Stock Block" Motor in 1994?? that motor had so much HP and reved over 10,000 that Good year was afraid that the tires would not hold up to the 250+MPH speeds down the straights. After that Tony George got pissed and started to form the IRL.

 

Yeah i love that pic too. One guy before me actually got in it. I wanted to smack him. No one was watching the car at all.

 

He started the IRL because he wanted to take control of open wheel racing in America, no other reason. If he wanted to stop things like that then all he had to do was get rid of USAC, which the IRL ended up doing after they messed up many times. In the end the move was movtivated by greed and not like the direction in which CART was going where he had no control. The IRL was started to supposedly give young american drivers a better chance. Now the IRL is going in that same direction that CART was and I say how's your sh$tburger taste, Tony? Burn in hell for messing up open wheel racing in the US.