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Was NASCAR Better When You Could "Cheat?" · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  There was tire controversy at Bristol, so that was a big deal.
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  Little Bristol. Were they always getting the
• 0:06
  wrecks and stuff? Like that, the half mile, Yeah.
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  I like Bristol. Dudes, tires were just getting
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  eroded. They had to manage tires.
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  Yeah, baby. There's all kinds of tire fall
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  off all over the track debris. Every guys were blowing off
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  tires. What happened?
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  Basically they used the same tire.
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  This is really probably boring to a lot of people.
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  They used a different type of it's kind of like a baseball
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  deal with with a resin rosin, a rosin bag.
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  They use a different type of treatment on the track that
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  caused more tire wear. So early on, dudes are just
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  blowing tires. Scary.
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  And so Denny Hamlin won. Martin Truex finished his
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  second. So it was the veteran drivers
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  that had the years of experience on short tracks of how to manage
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  their tires, who were able to succeed and not just go out
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  there and just hammer down and drive as fast as possible and
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  switch it up. This was a little more about
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  experience, which a lot of the drivers and teams really like
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  this because they feel like this car has dumbed down the product
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  where just everybody has the same car and you just go and
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  there's a lot of luck. Do you like the track position?
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  I do, yes. So do I I think it's
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  interesting. But.
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  I like when they go fast too though.
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  Well, here's what I'll say. I am not, I am not the person
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  who grew up watching NASCAR. So the Super speedways to me are
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  the most fun, but they're not the best judge of a driver
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  'cause there's so much luck involved if if half the field
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  gets wrecked and it's not their fault.
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  Like there's usually more random winners at the Super speedways,
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  whereas some of these tracks where it's more about truly the
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  drivers creeping in, creeping up.
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  Yeah, usually the cream rises to the top on some of these other
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  tracks and. It's hard to get from like way
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  in the back to get to the front in Bristol.
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  Well, especially with this particular car.
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  Yeah, yeah, it's it's that, to me is interesting, man.
• 2:02
  You know what? I like to pick your brain about
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  that, dude. This is also me for two years
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  really now getting into this sport, and I was into it a lot
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  in Michigan because we had the track there and there's two Cup
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  races. So I did cover a lot of NASCAR.
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  This is what, 17 years ago, but I never followed it like this.
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  What I find really interesting about NASCAR is how they look at
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  cheating. Because as a person who grew up
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  mostly a baseball guy, we look at cheating in baseball.
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  Or at least we used to with steroids.
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  And it was the end of the world. End of.
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  The world, Charlie. These people are just go away
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  and never come back. And then 20 years later we
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  changed our mind. But still, football's a sport
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  where it's like if you're doing juice, OK, everybody did juice
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  in the 80s. four-game suspension these days, Who cares?
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  NASCAR. I've realized this from the fans
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  and even the the crews and whatnot.
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  They embrace a level of cheating that they would almost call
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  engineering because think about it, it's about what you can get
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  away with from a creative standpoint.
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  And it's also the sport was literally started on running
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  moonshine. So think about it, the whole
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  sport was started on cheating the government because you're
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  you're tricking up cars to run moonshine in the South.
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  So like that's the whole sport was created on a level of
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  cheating. I like it.
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  That's what I'm saying. So they actually want the
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  engineers and the crew chiefs to be able to trick up the car and
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  have an advantage. And a lot of people don't like
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  the fact that the cars are all the same now, which I think is
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  very interesting When you look at how cheating is is perceived
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  in different sports. In NASCAR, it's embraced like
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  the best stories. When people go on Dale Junior's
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  download the best stories, Are the guys finally telling each
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  other how they cheated? Like, give me an example of how
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  they cheated, where people are like, God, I just got away with
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  this. They No one knew.
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  I mean, dude, it could be like, was it last year?
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  Denny Hamlin wins the race. Where was that?
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  Was it Martinsville? I can't remember where it was.
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  Early on. He wins the race.
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  They find a little piece of tape on the car and they had to give
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  up the trophy. He had to.
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  He had to basically he he won. He was in Victory Lane.
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  They gave him the trophy. He goes home.
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  They go no you didn't win. You had a little piece of tape
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  on the car. So what I'm saying is just over
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  the years the little things it could be 1/4 inch little here it
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  could be you shave down this you just you're trying to add a
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  little downforce here. What I'm saying is everybody did
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  it and it was kind of who could creatively do it the best and
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  and get away with it. So it was looked upon more as as
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  ingenuity was the word I was looking for, not engineering.
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  Ingenuity is the NASCAR term for cheating and it was always there
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  and people kind of like the fact that folks would try to get away
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  with it. Interesting.
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  Do you, do you would you rather the cars be a little bit
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  different allow a little bit of just like some sort of?
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  A Jeep put a Jeep put a Jeep tire.
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  Just one Jeep. Like would you want that or do
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  you like all the cars the same? I think I'd want a little more
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  of the old school. Yeah, I'm more old school
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  creative. And all the old school guys that
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  I really like when they keep asking for this, it makes me
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  feel like that it was and and it was.
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  But I also was into NASCAR when it was really big in O6O7.
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  When Dale Junior, like NASCAR, peaked around O 8 from from a
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  viewership standpoint and that's after Dale Senior died, it was
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  literally because Dale Junior was doing cribs and he's super
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  popular, had the bud car. Budweiser was running him around
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  everywhere. Yeah.
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  Is it the eight car? His was the eight, yeah, for
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  Budweiser. There's nothing old school about
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  NASCAR, though. Like, you know about this.
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  I only know from watching, like, no prep kings, like the race
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  show that they have on Discovery, whatever.
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  But I mean, even those guys that are racing for $500 that the
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  computer analytics and gauging the wind force and the tire
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  contact and everything like that, it's insane.
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  I would only imagine it's like 100 times more NASCAR, right?
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  Everything is computerized. They have readouts for every
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  mechanism in that car, right? Right.
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  What I'm saying though is that the old school was how they tech
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  inspected the car, whereas now they drive it into a essentially
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  a shed that has like the 360 image.
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  Yeah. Like you're getting, like you're
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  going get an MRI or. Something so back in the day
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  they'd say we can add a little little quarter inch this year.
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  That little bad boy off? Could we get away with it?
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  Yeah, I like that. I like that, man, that that
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  car's running hot. Well, he shaved a little part
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  off. And who's watching?
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  Like is it Angel Hernandez up in the tower?
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  No, I'm saying they drive their car into a shed that has 360.
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  Inches yes. I thought that's how they'd
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  figure. Out where they It's like a car
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  wash, but it's like checking everything.
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  Here's a good one. Just happened about 3 weeks ago.
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  This this shows you So Joey Logano, two time champ, awesome
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  driver. Did you hear what he got caught
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  with a couple weeks ago? So basically this is how this is
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  what I'll talk about. The advantages, just the small
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  advantages they're looking for. They tricked out his driving
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  gloves for qualifying. So if you if you were to hold
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  his glove potentially in a certain spot and his gloves were
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  webbed that he'd get an advantage in terms of arrow with
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  the with basically the wind in the car for just qualifying, all
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  he was trying to do was have the best qualifying lap.
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  So you're not even going to wear those in the in the race.
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  But that's what I'm talking about the level of cheating and
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  he got and he got caught. They they tricked out by the way
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  his gloves, which have to be all these have to be flame
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  retardant. They all have.
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  To be. They all have to be checked for
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  all that. Well, think about it.
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  If you have an open window, if you can, if you can hold a
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  bigger glove, just you're looking for the just the micro
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  amounts of advantage. So he tricks out his glove and
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  as he's doing his qualifying lap, if you can hold it in a
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  certain spot potentially where you're reducing the air flow
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  just a little bit of an advantage.
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  I like that. That's what I think is cool
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  about the sport, which they've gotten rid of.
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  So wait. But they're still trying.
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  That goes to show you. They're still trying.
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  They don't. So they don't normally have
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  their hand out the window. You're saying he intentionally
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  did it as a way to cut through the wind Better.
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  It wasn't out the window. Again, you're talking about
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  blocking a little bit of air just for qualifying, which your
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  your qualifying position is very important.
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  Yeah, if you start in the front, you can start out front and you
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  can get away from all the crappy wrecks that happen in the middle
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  of the pack when you're qualifying 25th and 30th.
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  Damn, if I had a ton of money, I'd have a big ass garage
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  attachment, you know, like Kenny does, and I'd have a mellow
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  yellow replica shite kicker. You know what I mean?
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  I guess it wouldn't be. I don't know if you could drive
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  it on the street, but I'd be cool just to have one of those
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  awesome old school NASCAR mellow yellow car, Charlie.
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  That's what I want. So mellow yellow that was.
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  Wasn't that junior head Mountain Dew?
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  Now he has Sun Drop. Sun Drop is his big.
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  I like the soda. One sponsor now, this happened
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  in dirt racing the other day with something they're spraying
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  on tires. I'm telling you, that's what I'm
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  saying, is that the cheating, which they call ingenuity, is
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  just embedded in this sport. They have dirt racers.
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  There was a huge scandal last week because they're spraying
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  something on the tires. They're essentially doping the
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  tires. I think.
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  It's kind of, it's super interesting.
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  It's. Kind of cool.
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  What's the big race this weekend?
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  So wait, this weekend is Circuit of the Americas, so Coda Austin,
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  TX road course. Oh, nice.