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Live from Daytona: Friday AM Update
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Location: Blogs Running Wide Open |
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| Posted by: Joe VanHoose |
2/17/2007 6:09 PM |
Burton speaks out against cheating
The NASCAR garage has always unofficially appointed a driver to speak on behalf of all the others. For years, it was Dale Earnhardt.
Earnhardt had his finger directly on the pulse of the NASCAR garage, and he was always the driver to speak up on behalf of his brethren, whether he was promoting his own agenda or not.
Now the leader and spokesman for drivers is Jeff Burton. Burton is not exactly a star and he doesn’t have the souvenir sales of those like Gordon and Earnhardt Jr.
But what Burton does have is an opinion. And he may be the best at articulating the pulse of the garage, so much so that when he gave his press conference Friday morning, the media hung on his every word.
Today Burton focused on cheating, the buzz word for the week that has stolen racing headlines across the country. Instead of giving a vanilla answer or dodging the issue, Burton spoke out directly against those who bend the rules.
“I’m a proponent of big penalties,” Burton said. “The more severe the penalty, the more people are prone to doing the right thing.
“I believe that the bigger the hit from NASCAR, the less (cheating) happens.”
As for those violating the rules this week, Burton said that he had a chance to look at Gordon’s illegal shock that caused Gordon’s car to be too low in post-race inspection. Gordon kept the Gatorade Duel win but will start the Daytona 500 from the back. Burton said that he had a bad feeling about the penalty when it was issued, but after he viewed the broken shock, he felt that the penalty fit the crime.
“It was my opinion that what happened to the 24 was a screw up,” Burton said. “When you look at the part, it was beat up pretty badly and it wasn’t machined to work one way that would be beneficial.”
As for those who were caught in pre-qualifying inspection, Burton sang a different tune.
“If you look at what happened to Michael Waltrip and what the 17 did, and if the 17 got 50 points taken away, the 55 should have been 10 times that,” Burton said.
Sunday, Matt Kenseth’s car was disqualified for trying after NASCAR officials spotted tape placed to make the car more aerodynamic. Waltrip’s car was confiscated after NASCAR officials found sterno in the intake manifold.
Kenseth was stripped of 50 championship points while Waltrip was stripped of 100 points. Both crew chiefs for both cars were ejected.
“It’s my opinion that (Waltrip) got off exceptionally easy in comparison with the other penalties,” Burton said. “But you could make an argument that NASCAR has done the right thing.”
Even still, Burton pointed out that the week’s unfoldings have been a black eye for the sport.
“I don’t think it’s been a bad week for NASCAR, it’s been a bad week for our sport,” Burton said in closing. “This is the start of a lot of big things that are going to happen this year, and we’re stuck talking about cheating.
“We should be talking about racing, but instead we’re talking about what people are doing to screw wins out of the sport.”
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