NASCAR Fans/observers: care about this recent cheating scandal? (cycling too)

In My Humble Opinion
1

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-CAR-NASCAR-Cheating-Reax.html

If you are a NASCAR fine, I am curious, what is your opinion of this recent NASCAR cheating episode? My understanding of the episode is fairly shallow. Basically, NASCAR drivers, the technical crews, and everyone else cheats all the time. It’s considered by NASCAR to be no big deal, sponsors don’t freak out if their team is discovered to be cheating, and it’s considered part and parcel with the sport.

For instance, Toyota, the sponsor of Daytona-500 winner Michael Waltrip, has said that it has no intention of backing away from Mr. Waltrip because of the recent scandal.

So, NASCAR fans, what do you think? Does it make you shy about your sport? Diminish your passion for it to some extent? What about casual NASCAR watchers? Does a major cheating scandal like this make you want to avoid watching the league or sport at all?

Finally, may I make a comparison to my sport, cycling? Cycling is a sport where many suspect blood doping on the ProTour level to be endemic. However, whenever a doping scandal arises, people “freak the fuck out.” An effective four year ban is meeted out for first offenses, life-time bans for second offenses.

TV ratings were decimated at this year’s Tour after Operation Puerto in which many of the top-competitors were prevented from entering, and potential $10 M sponsor iShares dropped out from taking over the Phonak team because Floyd Landis was accused of doping (although the judicial process is dragging on forever). Entire teams this year have been rebuilt around preventing and detecting doping. For example, T-Mobile and Slipstream/Chipotle plan to conduct thousands of voluntary tests on their riders to try to avoid a doping scandal rear its ugly head on their watch.

So, is this difference in attitudes towards cheating between these sports all in my head, or is it real? If it’s real, is that difference appropriate?

Thanks,
threemae

posts and quietly wonders if anyone on The Dope is a NASCAR fan

2

Thread on this subject already in this forum:

Also, want to join a NASCAR fantasy league of Dopers? Thread can be found in Cafe Society.

3

Damn, I’m sorry, I really should have seen that. But, I suppose that my original post wasn’t so much to discuss NASCAR in a vacuum and more to compare and contrast between motor-racing and athletics. I think that trying to compare it to another sport would have been hijacking, so I’m not going to ask that this thread be closed by a mod, although I suppose they could.

My impression from that thread is that indeed fans and sponsors of NASCAR do take the cheating a bit more seriously than I had originally surmised.

4

As the OP of that other thread, I’ll say that I don’t care if you want to broaden it out a little. There’s certainly a comparison to be drawn, although I disagree a bit with your premise that it’s not taken as seriously in NASCAR.