The news that Red Bull Racing’s No. 83 Toyota team was using shaved sheet metal on Brian Vickers’ car—at least at Martinsville last week—begs the question about people not learning from others’ mistakes.
Wasn’t Vickers crew chief Kevin Hamlin paying attention last season when NASCAR brought the hammer down on Michael Waltrip Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and this year when they dealt severely with Robbie Gordon’s team all for trying to bend the rules?
In Red Bull’s case, NASCAR randomly had selected the No. 83 Toyota for a closer inspection after the Sprint Cup Tums QuikPak 500 at Martinsville Speedway, where Vickers had finished 11th.
In that inspection, officials discovered that the sheet metal used to construct the car doors and quarter panels did not meet minimum thickness requirements.
The result was that both Vickers and team owner Dietrich Mateschitz were docked 150 points in the drivers and owners championships while Hamlin was suspended indefinitely and fined a whopping $100,000
Red Bull said it would not appeal.
“The necessary steps will be taken to rectify the situation, ensuring it does not happen again,” team general manager Jay Frye said. Maybe not at Red Bull, but don’t bet your mortgage it won’t happen again.
Vickers joined a long list of drivers whose teams broke the rules in the last 18 months: reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr.
“NASCAR has over and over stated that they do not want us messing with this car,” driver Greg Biffle, currently second in points to Johnson, said. “Everybody has gotten their knuckles slapped with the ruler pretty hard.”
UPDATE: October 25, 2008 06:49 am
NASCAR said Wednesday that when it inspected Vickers’ car after Sunday’s race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, it found the exterior sheet metal was thinner than required under the rules. NASCAR wouldn’t elaborate, but the modification presumably made the car lighter, faster and more nimble aerodynamically, any of which is an advantage.
Vickers joined a long list of drivers whose teams broke the rules in the last 18 months: reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr.
“NASCAR has over and over stated that they do not want us messing with this car,” driver Greg Biffle, currently second in points to Johnson, said Wednesday. “Everybody has gotten their knuckles slapped with the ruler pretty hard.”
But apparently not hard enough, given that the cheating goes on.
By suspending crew chiefs and deducting points from drivers, NASCAR can rightly say justice has been dispensed. But the driver is back in action the following week, to the benefit of his team, his sponsors, his fans, track operators, TV networks carrying the races, and, yes, NASCAR as a whole.
Now, pretend for a moment that a Johnson, Gordon, Earnhardt or Edwards was ordered to sit out next Sunday’s race because his car didn’t pass inspection at the last race.
Much of NASCAR’s popularity is built on the individual popularity—and brand recognition—of its drivers. Some fans drive hundreds of miles to see their favorite driver. Or consider the corporate sponsors.
What if all their sales pitches and other hospitality events planned for a race were negated because the driver had been sent home? Maybe one day it will come to that. But for now, Vickers’ fans can rest easy.
UPDATE: October 25, 2008 09:49 am
“The old saying that ‘Any press is good press’ is wrong in this respect, ” said two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, who has seen his team slip onto the wrong side of the NASCAR rule book numerous times.
“When you have that negative press on your team, it does put question marks in people’s minds, and that is something that takes a long time to overcome. I’ve lived it firsthand. It’s a tough thing to overcome.”
That’s the battle Red Bull faces with just one month left on a season in which it crawled from the bottom of the NASCAR pile and moved toward the front of the pack. Barely competitive during last year’s inaugural season, Vickers has challenged for wins and was in position to grab a career-high finish in the final point standings.
All that progress was sullied when NASCAR discovered illegal sheet metal on the No. 83 Toyota following Vickers’ 11th-place finish at Martinsville.
Red Bull general manager Jay Frye has already taken steps, telling The Associated Press on Friday he fired the person who manipulated the sheet metal.
“It was just a complete error in judgment,” Frye said. “What we did was wrong. It won’t happen again and it was for sure isolated. The person responsible has been removed from the company and others have been disciplined.”
Frye said he also put in place a stronger safeguarding system to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
“The Red Bull team in general has a great system of checks and balances to it, so for this to slip through the crack, it was enlightening that it could still happen with all the systems we have in place,” Frye said. “So we’ve had to add new systems. More internal policing, and it’s everybody.”
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