Cutting it close but not crossing the line

NASCAR says that the cars of Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson -- the top two drivers in the points -- came close to the tolerances officials allow in a post-race inspection of those Dover cars at NASCAR's R&D center. Essentially, we're talking fractions of an inch.

Let's be clear: There was NO infranction, thus no need for a penalty. Both the cars of Martin and Johnson WERE LEGAL.

This raises some issues, especially since it involves the top two teams in the Chase and Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, has been penalized quite often in the past by NASCAR.

The point is that NASCAR took the cars of Johnson and Martin back to the R&D Center after Dover -- it's a relatively normal procedure for NASCAR to take cars back to the R&D center for further inspection -- and then told the teams that they're getting close to exceeding the limits and being penalized.

So, is that wrong NASCAR telling teams they're almost over the line? If you think so, then how is that any different from a basketball official telling a defender to keep his hands off an offensive player? How is different from a football official warning offensive players about holding? What is the old football joke that there is holding on every play? Well, no one comes to watch the officials drop their flags every play.

Brian Vickers had an interesting take on the situation when he was told about it Friday at Kansas:

"I think that's every team's job is to -- NASCAR gives us a box and you're supposed to use every bit of it, and if you don't, shame on you. I think Hendrick is as good at that as anybody or better of using every single bit of that box, pushing every component to the limit to what they're allowed to do. I think good for them. I wish that was us when we go to inspections. We should have everything maxed to every limit that we possibly can without going over.''

Knaus said -- and NASCAR backed him -- that there was some damage on the rear of Johnson's car at Dover.

"With the amount of damage that we had on our car, they thought that we were close and they wanted to get together with us and our cars at Hendrick Motorsports, watch exactly how we are measuring our stuff and try to develop a little better correlation between the two places. That's really it. The tolerances were a little bit closer than what they've seen in our cars in the past.''

As for pushing the limits, Knaus said;

"First off, if we were cheating, I woudln't be standing here, I'd be back in Charlotte, so obviously that's not the case,'' he said. "It's a situation that we do a good job of building very, very good race cars and we take pride in that. The cars were legal.''

Knaus says he plans to run the same car next at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Had an interesting post from a reader the other day. They said what they most like about the Chase is that it comes during the football season so they can change channels. Watching a race is like taking a sleeping pill ... they said.

So do you agree?

COMMENTS ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here; comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its websites. Users must follow agreed-upon rules: Be civil, be clean, be on topic; don't attack private individuals, other users or classes of people. Read the full rules here.
- Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the report violation link below it.