This is ridiculous...almost

By DAVID GREEN

The late Bill Connell, long-time public address announcer at Charlotte Motor Speedway, could never have been accused of understating anything. In the manner of an old-style carnival barker (or a present-day Dick Vitale), he did his best to make the mundane seem astonishing.

He ignored the notion that close counts only in horseshoes and hand grenades. If a driver ventured into the high line at CMS on a qualifying run, Bill would hype the moment by screeching, "HE'S IN THE WALL..." and then, when there was no crash, he would add, "...almost!!!"

I thought of Bill as I pondered NASCAR's warning to Hendrick Motorsports that the cars of Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin were being closely scrutinized to make sure they were legal after the Dover and Kansas races.

Martin had won the first race in the Chase for the Cup at New Hampshire and had finished second to Johnson in round two, at Dover. Following the Dover race, the No. 48 and 5 cars were taken to NASCAR's technical center in Charlotte.

The same cars went back to Charlotte a week later, after Tony Stewart won, with Martin seventh and Johnson ninth. By this point, things -- already a little fuzzy to me -- became blurred beyond reason.

Why were the cars taken to Charlotte in the first place? Is NASCAR's post-race procedure at the track inadequate in some way? What exactly do inspectors do to the cars in Charlotte that they cannot do post-race in the inspection site at the track?

Martin's crew chief, Alan Gustafson, revealed that Martin's car has been impounded and taken to Charlotte every time the car has won a race this year. Maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention, but is that now standing operating procedure for NASCAR? Does that happen to every race-winning car?

Did they impound Stewart's No. 14 and take it to Charlotte? If not, why not? If so, did it "almost" violate any rules?

What about the seventh- and ninth-place finishers? Are they routinely stripped and cavity-searched? If not, why were the 5 and the 48 targeted? Is NASCAR profiling?

Regardless, the language used to explain the procedure sounds like something Bill Connell would have appreciated. According to David Scott's lead paragraph in his story of Oct. 2, "Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin didn't break any rules during their 1-2 finish last week at Dover, Del., but they've been told by NASCAR they nearly did."

Figuratively speaking, they were in the wall...almost.

Let's give NASCAR the benefit of the doubt and suggest that what they're doing here is intended to be kind of like in basketball, where, quiteoften, referees will carry on a dialogue with players, suggesting things like "Watch the hand checking" or "Clean that up" or some similar instruction. It can help keep the game under control without turning it into a free-throw-shooting exhibition.

Unfortunately, NASCAR's actions are not under the radar. It screams for attention -- and it cannot help but raise questions about the legality of the cars that are being closely scrutinized.

In the context of a NASCAR culture in which micromanagement of the most minute rules is resulting in weekly "rap sheets" and fines for the most trivial of offenses, and against the background of a world motor sports culture in which a Formula One team has admitted tampering with the course of a race in order to influence the outcome, the actions of NASCAR officials toward the two Hendrick cars during this championship playoff seems to me a curiously negative thing to do.

Gustafson and Chad Knaus, crew chief of the 48, are smart guys. All NASCAR officials have to do is turn thumbs up or thumbs down. If the tolerances are very, very close, they could, like a good NBA or NCAA referee, remark, "You're right on the line there. Careful."

That's all that would be necessary. If one of the cars should subsequently be found to be in violation of that specification or even an unrelated one, the officials could give the thumbs-down signal. They might add, verbally, "I warned you," but that would be optional.

Without any doubt, NASCAR has been subject to considerable skepticism about its officiating over the years.

Just as clearly, some of the things it is doing nowadays will increase, rather than retard, that skepticism.