If you can’t beat ‘em, get their horsepower changed!
Forgive me, but I can’t imagine Major League Baseball pulling in the fences at midseason to “level the playing field.” Or the National Football League instituting a “two-Mississippi rushing rule” at midseason. Or the NBA moving the 3-point arc a foot closer at midseason.
But NASCAR, as it has done in the past, is changing the rules in the Nationwide Series at midseason, essentially slowing down the Toyotas by reducing the horsepower of their engines by reducing the air that gets into combustion chamber.
Officially, this is called a “rule amendment,” released in a “technical bulletin,” and the amendment to section 20A - 5.10.4 reads innocuously enough: “At all Events, unless otherwise specified, all engines with a cylinder bore spacing less than 4.470 inches must compete using a tapered spacer with four (4) 1.125-inch diameter holes. At all Events, unless otherwise specified, all engines with a cylinder bore spacing of 4.470 inches or more must compete using a tapered spacer with four (4) 1.100-inch diameter holes. Unless otherwise authorized, the carburetor restrictor will be issued by NASCAR.”
Uh, huh. The only car it affects now is Toyota, which has been to Victory Lane 14 times this season, with 13 by Joe Gibbs Racing (9 in the 20 car). So basically, Gibbs Racing is being punished for winning races!
Interestingly, the Nationwide drivers’ points standings are led by Clint Bowyer of Richard Childress Racing in a Chevrolet, and only three of the top 10 drivers’ standings are in Toyotas — David Reutimann in fourth, Kyle Busch in seventh and Mike Wallace in eighth. In the owners’ standings, Toyota has only two of the top 10 — first (Gibbs’ 20 car) and sixth (Michael Waltrip Racing’s 99).
Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition, defended slowing down Gibbs’ cars thusly: “Eventually, all teams that upgrade to new engine packages will be subject to this rule modification. Over the years in our sport, we’ve taken steps on numerous occasions to help maintain a level playing field among our competitors and we will continue to do so.”
I don’t know. It almost seems un-American to make a rule change to negate someone being good. Isn’t the cream supposed to rise to the top in a capitalist, free-enterprise system?
Personally, I think the other teams should work harder to catch up with the Toyotas of Gibbs Racing. Ain’t that the American way?
Next up: Major League Baseball changes its rules to disallow the “gyro” ball thrown by Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka. Gives him an unfair advantage.
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Wow, you should try and understand the sport you are writing about. The first questions you should ask yourself is this: Why was Toyota the only manufacturer allowed to have a new engine design in the Nationwide series this year? Why hasen’t Chevys new engine been allowed in the Nationwide series?
Now you have a grip on the real reason why the rule only affects Toyota RIGHT NOW. When NASCAR gets around to doing the right thing and allowing the American manufacturers to compete with NASCAR’s new best friend, they will have to abide by the same rules.
NASCAR isn’t about boring F1 type tech, where the car makers spend billions in the lab just to produce boring races. EVERY NASCAR engine is gimped to keep the cars under 200 mph and out of the stands.
Wow, Opie, you should ask yourself why Toyota has only two cars in the top 10 of the owners’ points, and why a Chevrolet is leading the points standings? And how a Ford won Saturday at Gateway?
With the major exception of the Gibbs cars, where’s Toyota’s big advantage in the owners or drivers standings? Why hasn’t Reutimann won a half-dozen races? Didn’t the most recent dyno testing show a lot of parity among the Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge and Toyota engines?
I don’t mind NASCAR changing rules in the offseason. It happens in all sports. Changing the rules in the middle of the season is what I object to.