NASCAR and golf don’t have too much in common, but fans getting into the habit of reporting rule breaking is something the two sports share.

Although the USGA ditched this rule last year, for years, golf fans were able to call in penalties against players based on what they saw on TV. Impacting major players like Tiger Woods and Lexi Thompson, this old rule would change the outcome of a tournament.

NASCAR doesn’t have anything official like that, but fans on the sport’s Reddit page recently have used the internet to try and do the same thing with observations they make about team’s cars.

Sunday, the buzz was all about Kevin Harvick‘s winning No. 4 Ford, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. raised an important question: “My concern is how does NASCAR react to the fans attempting to police the sport?”

Rewinding back to Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, fans online noticed what appeared to be an indent in Harvick’s back windshield on the top right side, which could give him a boost in speed.

It’s important to note that his car passed the pre- and post-race inspections, but that didn’t stop fans from calling attention to it on Reddit and social media.

As Earnhardt pointed out on his weekly podcast, the Dale Jr. Download, it’s similar to what happened last year to Chase Elliott – then a teammate of Junior’s.

While Elliott was doing a post-race interview, fans noticed his crew appearing to mess with the car over his shoulder and pointed it out on Reddit. It looked like a crew member was removing tape from the car – which would have given it an aerodynamic advantage – and NASCAR threw a penalty at the team.

While NASCAR didn’t credit fans with calling attention to the violation, Earnhardt said the sport is in “dangerous” territory allowing fans to think they had an impact.

He said, via the Dale Jr. Download:

“My reaction really is about the relationship between NASCAR and Reddit. We don’t know – we are only assuming that NASCAR reacted to the deal with Chase last year because of the work that Reddit did. And is NASCAR going to get in the habit of reacting (to) the Reddit police? … “There’s a public opinion that they were the ones that investigated the Chase Elliott thing, and that brought a lot of exposure to NASCAR Reddit and their group and encouraging them, I guess, to continue their efforts. And here we are in the third race of the season, and it’s popped up again. Now, when we get down into the (playoffs) and this is going on, it’s gonna get louder.”

Earnhardt added he’s not sure how the sport should react to this, if at all, but he wondered if it’s even possible for NASCAR to ignore it.

Tell us what you think!

UPDATE: NASCAR handed Harvick and his No. 4 team two penalties Wednesday night, one of which was for violations in the rear window area. He lost playoff and regular-season points. More via USA TODAY Sports: