Cheating? Penalties? The Refs Hold a NASCAR Championship In Their Hands

Did You Notice? … It was several hours after Sunday’s (Oct. 13) race at Charlotte Motor Speedway before NASCAR officials announced Alex Bowman had failed post-race inspection? Long after fans left the track and Joey Logano went home, the sport switched out a playoff driver and put a new one inside the Round of 8.

Let me be clear at the outset: NASCAR did a tremendous job detailing a tough call that concluded Bowman’s car had missed weight. Managing Director Brad Moran faced at-track reporters, trotting out step-by-step details which included multiple opportunities for the No. 48 team to prove them wrong.

A sport that often falls short in this area should be applauded for being as transparent as possible. But in the end, Bowman and Hendrick Motorsports couldn’t show the car was legal. The dropped weight left NASCAR no choice but to disqualify the No. 48 team, changing the outcome of this postseason as we know it.

It’s hard to understate how monumental this move has been. Could you imagine waking up this morning, having watched the Yankees win a MLB playoff game, only to find out they lost because one of their pitchers had sticky stuff in their glove?

Let’s take that a step further. Not only did it take hours for baseball to announce this penalty, there’s no replays or conclusive video that show there was sticky stuff in a glove. It means you can’t see the pitcher breaking the rule with your own eyes; you just have to trust referees managing the game made the right call.

That, in essence, has always been the problem with NASCAR penalties, a disadvantage completely outside their control. The inability for fans to see hard data behind how a rule was broken breeds additional distrust you don’t see from stick-and-ball sports.

Sure, in sports like football and hockey, penalties are debated all the time. But cameras and replay systems are around to reaffirm (or strike down) a referee’s call. You can argue for hours with someone whether it was really pass interference, or offensive holding, or whether a fumble was really an incomplete pass.

You can’t argue whether or not a driver has sped because … you don’t really know, do you? You can’t see a speedometer that shows Driver X was really 10 miles over the limit in Section 8. You just have to trust officials have reliable information, using it to stick to the letter of the law.

Here’s…