How to Cheat in NASCAR

To win at NASCAR, you have to have a great driver, a stellar pit crew, and a garage that gives you the best equipment. But the easiest way to win at NASCAR? Cheat. NASCAR’s history is full of teams cheating and officials trying to catch them. Cheating seems to fall into two categories: knowingly circumventing the rules and exploiting gray areas the rules don’t cover. It used to be easier to get away with the former. Before templates and electronic measuring systems, NASCAR officials relied largely on their own judgment and experience. That meant racers might be able to disguise some trick body work with a crazy paint scheme or weight one part of the car more heavily for a handling boost. Winning driver Richard Petty said as much in racing journalist Tom Jensen’s book . In the 1960s, Petty admitted he cheated but tried to keep the tweaks modest so they wouldn’t attract attention. “Or cheat on 15 things and do two or three things that’s very obvious. NASCAR’d catch [the obvious ones]. You got through with what you wanted to get through with,” Petty said. Now, inspection is much more standardized and sophisticated. Inspectors have