The off-week's "big news" involved more fines and suspensions over things we don't understand.
Too many rules?
You can make an argument — and many do — that one of NASCAR’s big problems is the thick rulebook needed to combat modern technology within the garage stalls and engineering labs. This came to mind yet again last week. In better times, a Cup Series off-week would inevitably be ignited with big news of some sort — as if by design, it seemed. All we got last week was more news about illegal splitters and the resulting fines and suspensions. This time is was three crew chiefs (fines) and three car chiefs (suspensions) from Joe Gibbs Racing.
Should they just let ’em go?
It’s probably a can’t-win proposition. If you let ’em go and throw out 90 percent of the rulebook, some organization finds a huge advantage and, in Bill France’s words, “stinks up the show.” But make this intense, ongoing, expensive effort to keep everyone on the straight-and-narrow, and you get constant press releases about suspensions and fines due to nonconforming splitters, etc. Pick your poison.
— Ken Willis, ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
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