There is a fine line between the terms competitive and dirty. However, drivers sometimes violate it, and depending on which side you're on, calling someone's driver dirty can be a battle. In sports, cheating and controversy are nothing new, and in NASCAR, they often result in some of the most dramatic and unforgettable storylines.
Since NASCAR's origins were in bootlegging, where drivers had to outrun the police, it was only normal that they would modify their vehicles, which was carried over to the early days of the sport. Stock car modifications were the name of the game, and the winners were typically the ones who were more innovative and better at finding the best balance between engines, suspension, and aerodynamics. Although the rules have tightened and NASCAR is cracking down harder than ever on cheaters, there are still plenty of teams and drivers that go above and beyond. Here we take a look at a few of the biggest cheaters NASCAR has ever seen.
8 Smokey Yunick
Chevrolet pulled out of stock car racing in 1967. Smokey Yunick, on the other hand, arrived at the Daytona 500 with an unsponsored Chevrolet Chevelle, which Curtis Turner put on the pole, defeating the factory Ford and Chrysler teams. The car turned out to be only a 7/8 scale, which explains why it was so fast. It moved a lot less air because it was narrower and shorter than stock.
Yunick repositioned the body on the frame to improve weight distribution and aerodynamics, raised the floor to improve airflow, and altered the roof and glass openings to reduce drag. In his book, "Best Damn Garage in Town: My Life and Adventures", he talks about his past and provides readers with deep insights to his life.
7 Junior Johnson
Ford Motor Company boycotted NASCAR for the 1966 season due to engine regulations. In August, however, car owner Junior Johnson split ranks with the other Ford teams in Atlanta. Johnson's 'Yellow Banana' featured a slanted windshield, a chopped roofline, and wildly contoured fenders. It was, surprisingly, allowed to race.
Junior was not apprehended for any of the changes he made. However, he was punished for others. His team was given a four-race suspension in 1991 for the use of a larger engine. He was fined in 1996 for failing to weld the intake manifold. But, for the school of racing he hailed from, this was commonplace.
6 Jeremy Mayfield
The fuel in Jeremy Mayfield's Penske-Kranefuss was found to be polluted with unapproved additives at Talladega. Mayfield received a $50,000 fine and a 151-point deduction. But the next weekend, he went out and won the race at Auto Club Speedway.
In spite of this scandal, Jeremy Mayfield was a rising star in NASCAR at the start of his career. However, he was out of a ride by the end of 2006, and his downward descent began. He tested positive for methamphetamine in June 2009. As a result, NASCAR suspended him indefinitely. He never returned to a NASCAR Cup garage.
5 Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was discovered to have illegal aerodynamic modifications in the rear firewall area after the Brickyard 400, where he had finished 3rd. He was docked 75 points, and Darian Grubb, his crew chief, and Wesley Sherrill, his car chief, were both suspended for six races.
Joe Gibbs and the rest of the team initially wanted to appeal the fines, but they later changed their minds. "We'll just step on and not let this impact our results," Hamlin said of the sanction. Despite the sanctions imposed on Hamlin's crew, his victory at Talladega Super Speedway guaranteed him a spot in the 2014 Chase.
4 Ken Schrader
Ken Schrader was participating in a short track race in Seattle when he realized his tires weren't going to last the few laps between him and the finish line. By shooting his in-car fire extinguisher out the window, he "simulated" an engine failure.
His rivals backed off, thinking his engine was about to explode, and that was all he needed to cross the finish line first, taking home a dubious win.
3 Richard Petty
Richard Petty won the Miller High Life 500 in 1983. The engine of his car was discovered to be too big, and the team was accused of placing the wrong tires on the car's left side. The engine was modified by adding wax to the cylinders, which melted during the race.
Richard Petty's winning car had left-side tires on the right side of the car, and an engine that measured 381.983 cubic inches against a maximum allowable limit of 358 cubic inches. Despite the fact that Petty was docked 104 points, the win was upheld, much to the objections of his critics.
2 Mark Martin
Mark Martin's Roush Racing Ford was disqualified in 1990 after winning in Richmond due to a carburetor spacer that was too tall. Martin was disappointed with the decision, arguing that it did not give him an unfair advantage. Martin was enraged by the decision, which cost him points and, eventually, the championship at the end of the season.
Martin and his team said that the infraction did not give him an unfair advantage in the victory. He was fined $40,000 and docked 46 points, the highest fine in NASCAR history at the time. He eventually lost sponsors and ranking as a result of what he deemed a minor blunder.
1 Carl Long
The most brutal NASCAR penalty ever is perhaps the one they hit low-budget racer Carl Long with back in 2009. After practice for the Sprint Showdown, a non-points, last-chance qualifying race to get into the Sprint All-Star Race, Long's engine was found to be 0.17 cubic inches too large.
He was fined $200,000 and 200 points. He was also banned from competing in 12 races immediately after the incident. Long revealed in 2017 that he had reached an agreement with NASCAR to return to the Cup Series garage.