While the rest of the world is enjoying the Winter Olympics, I’ve been counting down the days until the Daytona 500 kicks off my favorite sport, NASCAR auto racing. So I was absolutely shocked when I read the news that Jimmy Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus had been ejected from NASCAR’s premiere event. The thing that got me was just how blatant the attempt to break the rules had been. I mean, things like the car being too low, or a spoiler angle being off are one thing, but a device to raise the rear window is no accident or oversight!
Knaus’ team has been one of the strongest and most consistent during his tenure, but this rules violation suddenly casts all of their success under a different light. Allegations of cheating and forbidden technologies, like traction control, abound during a typical season. But for a team of such stature as Hendrick’s number 48 Lowes Chevy team to be caught red handed is a real bombshell. And it is also a warning for any other teams out there that think that they’ve gotten too big for NASCAR.
Well, in the end, Knaus should count himself lucky. In some other sports blatantly breaking the rules like this might draw a full season suspension or even a ban. So based on what has been reported so far, Mr. Hendrick might not want to complain too loudly.