Your Cheating Heart: Race Manipulation Nothing New in NASCAR

It's been a tough week for NASCAR, with accusations of unwelcome conduct flying left and right about the manipulation of spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. First, Michael Waltrip Racing earned itself a $300,000 fine and a 50-point penalty per driver after using drivers Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers to help teammate Martin Truex Jr. get into the Chase. The penalty, applied before Chase re-seeding, knocked Truex out in favor of Ryan Newman, but left Jeff Gordon with "an unprecedented level of anger" when the No. 24 car didn't make it in. Bowyer came out relatively unscathed points-wise. (An aside: Sure, Gordon has the right to be mad. But NASCAR can't pick and choose when to apply its penalties—namely, penalizing Truex and Vic...

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