With rule changes, teams tempted to cheat

Here's the question: Will teams cheat to make the Chase?

It might not be an easy one to answer.

There's a morality issue, and while some would say that should guide one's answer, the reality is big money and big prizes are at stake, and that complicates things.

This season, the final two spots to the Chase are set aside for drivers with the most wins who are between 11th and 20th in the points. Heading into tonight's race at Daytona International Speedway, only one driver between 11th and 20th has a victory.

That leaves a spot available to someone who could win.

"This year, (NASCAR) put more (of a) premium on winning than ever before. That's putting more pressure and more temptation on teams to push the limit to win," said ESPN analyst Andy Petree, a former car owner and championship crew chief. "

Those chances don't stop on the track. They might take chances off the track."

Cheating, of course, is a part of NASCAR. The sport's history is rich with crew chiefs who worked around the rules and car owners who helped them. Crews constantly search to work in what they call "gray areas" of the rulebook...

…At the request of The Virginian-Pilot, Joyce Julius & Associates researched the significance of sponsor exposure for teams that made the Chase compared to those that didn't.

The Michgan-based group, which measures sponsor exposure, looked at teams near the bottom of the Chase standings and those that just missed making the Chase. It found that even those at the bottom received about $3 million more in sponsor exposure, on average, in the final 10 races than those that missed the Chase. They also averaged about three hours more sponsor exposure.

Exposure increased in the days between races.

"As soon as the race is over and you switch into midweek mode, the articles, the features stories and (what's) on the highlight shows during the week... the majority of the coverage is focused on the Chase," said Eric Wright, vice president of research and development for Joyce Julius.

It is then, he said, that teams in the Chase "clean up" on sponsor exposure.

That could push a team to consider cheating.

"If I've got a sponsor that says, 'If you don't make the Chase, we're done'... that's pretty desperate," Petree said.

"There's probably somebody out there desperate enough, crazy enough, bold enough, brave enough, whatever you want to call it, to try it.

"But I think NASCAR will be all over it. It would not be pretty."