NASCAR Veterans Weigh In On Cheating

By Allen Gregory
Sports Writer / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: August 22, 2008

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Don Tarr knows the NASCAR game.

The Mountain City, Tenn., resident competed at the highest levels of the sport, roamed with the legends and learned the secrets of the pits.

While the motorsports world continues to rock over the cheating scandal of the Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide Series team, Tarr can only chuckle.

“We called it being innovative when I raced. It was an honorable thing,” said Tarr, referring to the cheating story.

Tarr’s resume features nine top-10 finishes in 48 Winston Cup starts from 1967 to 1971. And Tarr worked with a master innovator in crew chief Ray Fox.

“Ray was the greatest, that’s why I did so well,” Tarr said.

Tarr actually led the opening lap of the infamous 1969 Talladega. That was the same event where several marquee drivers pulled out due to the excessive speeds.

“Buddy Baker drove the car the year before I did, and I beat Buddy by two miles per hour,” Tarr said. “Ray had figured out a way to make the car go faster.

“I just had to keep my foot on the floor, and just ignore the little drop when I entered the first turn.”

Along with Junior Johnson, Fox devised all manner of gimmicks to evade NASCAR inspectors. Drivers learned it was wiser to just race than ask questions.

“He didn’t divulge them to me, but Ray had beautiful tricks,” said Tarr, a family doctor who was dubbed “The World’s Fastest Physician.”

Years later, Tarr discovered that Fox had drilled a small hole under the front shock and installed a toothpick.

“NASCAR never measured your car after the race back then, it was all pre-race checks,” Tarr said.

“And when NASCAR did find something, they didn’t fine you $100,000. They just took the part and placed it in the museum at Darlington.”

Fox also had success with Johnson and David Pearson.

After Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at Michigan, inspectors found magnets under the gas pedals of the Joe Gibbs-owned Joey Lagano and Tony Stewart cars when they were sent to the chassis dyno for examination. NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said the teams were attempting to mask the true horsepower of the cars.

Seven crew members were suspended, while Stewart and Logano were each docked 150 points.

“It was just a simple thing they did, but it goes back to many years when Junior Johnson raced,” said former Busch Series competitor Gary Potter of Johnson City. “You cheat until you get caught, and that’s what they’re doing now.”

From the fun-filled weekly dirt tracks to the high-stakes Sprint Cup world, clever mechanics are on a never-ending search for an edge.

“There’s always been guys who are working between the fine line of the rule book,” Potter said.

Junior Johnson, in Bluff City on Thursday, can’t find fault with either party in this situation.

“You’ll always see people who want to keep what they got and not give it away,” he said. “I don’t blame [Gibbs] anymore than I blame NASCAR for penalizing them.”

Pressed further, however, and Johnson’s true colors wave proudly.

“[Gibbs] earned the priviledge of having the fastest cars and they’d like to keep it. [NASCAR] says they were cheating. Well, if you say that then I guess you can’t put too much air in the tire or you can’t change a tire.”

According to former Winston Cup driver Travis Tiller from Clintwood, the generic Car of Tomorrow has stripped away the character of the Sprint Cup Series and forced crew chiefs to work within a small box.

“You can’t tinker with the cars anymore,” Tiller said. “It’s just like [NASCAR] is selling you a car and you have to run it as-is. The only thing you can do is maybe the change the springs.”

The NASCAR car and game may have changed, but it appears innovation will always be part of the story.

| (276) 645-2544