Gluck: NASCAR needs to clearly define cheating

Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

RICHMOND, Va. -- When an NFL offensive lineman is flagged for holding, is he cheating?

The majority of people would likely say no. In the NFL, a penalty is a penalty and nothing more; every fan and player knows the consequence for holding is the loss of 10 yards. "Cheating" implies something more sinister.

But in NASCAR, the line is less clear.

When Martin Truex Jr. failed post-race inspection at Texas (a piece of debris was lodged in his shock, making the front too low), it was the equivalent of holding.

When NASCAR took away some of Truex's points and fined his crew chief, though, some assumed the team must have cheated.

How about the Penske Racing cars? NASCAR slammed the teams of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano with points deductions, fines and suspensions for alleged infractions, also found at Texas. Were they cheating or simply trying to push the limits as an offensive lineman might?

An appeals panel will answer that question Wednesday.

And just this week, NASCAR issued one of the largest penalties in its history after it found a part in Kansas race winner Matt Kenseth's engine weighed 2.7 grams less than it should -- a part assembled for the No. 20 Toyota's engine before it arrived in Kenseth's garage at Joe Gibbs Racing.

How big are we talking? Try 50 points docked from Kenseth and a $200,000 fine and six-race suspension for crew chief Jason Ratcliff. Plus, Gibbs can't collect owner points on the No. 20 for six races or count Kenseth's win toward his Chase hopes.

Although the consensus in the garage was Kenseth's situation was an unfortunate error that provided no performance advantage, many will still look at it as an attempt to skirt the rules because NASCAR's harsh penalties indicate the presence of a sneaky act.

Since his team was penalized, Keselowski has heard plenty of fans ask "Does this mean you're a cheater?" After all, NASCAR said the cars' rear-end housings were outside the spirit of the rules.

"I don't think that (label) is fair because you look at the best players in the NBA — Michael Jordan committed fouls and you don't see situations where the fans in the NBA look at him and call him a cheater," Keselowski said Thursday. "It's just kind of part of the game. When you're pushing to the limits, sometimes things just step over, whether it's intentional or not."

At times when teams go over the line, it's cheating — an attempt to gain a performance advantage illegally. Other times, it's an innocent pure mistake.

NASCAR, though, doesn't judge intent. It treats what Toyota Racing Development termed a "simple mistake" with Kenseth's engine in the same way as if a team had been caught blatantly doing something illegal to go faster.

Kenseth called the penalties "grossly unfair" and "borderline shameful" because they were so heavy-handed; the punishment did not fit the crime, he claimed.

In other words, he got a 15-yard penalty when five yards would have sufficed (he didn't argue the legality of the part, just the intent).

What makes defining cheating more confusing is when NASCAR enforces penalties, it's a guessing game as to how severe they will be. The rulebook does not spell out a specific consequence for each infraction.

NASCAR believes it needs to send a message when it comes to certain areas of the car in order to discourage teams that might be willing to cheat.

But in the interest of transparency, NASCAR would be better off following the NFL's lead for on-field infractions by clearly defining what makes a cheater, what doesn't and how much each of those penalties are worth.

Follow Jeff Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck