The biggest news of the Michigan weekend was Joe Gibbs Racing getting caught interfering with NASCAR’s engine inspections. They apparently used magnets to alter a Nationwide dyno test on the engines. The magnets prevented the gas pedal from accelerating 100%. (Rumors that Regan Smith’s car had magnets to pull the pedal to the floor in order to accelerate 100% were untrue and made up by me.)

After Michael Waltrip’s fiasco at the 2007 Datyona 500, plus Jack Roush’s accusations of a Toyota team stealing proprietary parts, the Japanese manufacturer’s image (Toyota needs a nickname in line with blue oval, bow tie or ram’s head) has not exactly endeared itself to fans and officials. For some fans it’s all the ammunition they need to fire off more claims about Toyota being bad for the sport. To be clear this was a Joe Gibbs Racing offense, and the manufacturer probably had nothing to do with it. The offense would be the same whether Gibbs was still with Chevrolet, Pontiac or Toyota.

While it’s NASCAR’s job to determine intent, it appears that Gibbs will receive serious penalties in this case. Cheating is typically regarded as mild embarrassment for the offenders. A team tries to sneak something past NASCAR like a child trying to sneak out of bed during naptime. They get busted, but in the scheme of things it’s not a serious offense. It’s almost greeted with a sporting, “Nice try.” In contrast, Gibbs not only tried to sneak something past the officials, but also tried to cover it up. In the words of JGR president, JD Gibbs, “This one here is clearly — if it turns out what it is — it’s an intentional opportunity to lead someone astray.” And that is where some will call for harsh penalties.

While throwing Gibb’s Nationwide teams in NASCAR jail would probably make some fans feel better, what would the overall effect be? For a powerful Cup team like Gibbs, not much. While winning 14 races obviously impresses sponsors, Nationwide races don’t have any bearing on what happens on Sundays in the Cup series, which is exactly why such a blatant offense occurred in the series that it did. It’s also the reason why Chad Knaus tends to experiment with things during the regular season but doesn’t mess around during the Chase. The good teams pick their spots for rule bending.

The other thing to note is that Joe Gibbs Racing does not have a previous record of rule breaking. The pattern of cheating isn’t there yet, and while NASCAR might make an example out of Gibbs for all teams to heed, that doesn’t seem fair to a team with an otherwise pretty clean record. Don’t get me wrong, the Gibbs teams deserve punishment for breaking rules. But all of the brash talk about making them pay or questioning their 2008 accomplishments doesn’t really do much either. The only way NASCAR can truly curb cheating is to penalize teams so severely that they would stop. That severity in this case would be penalizing the Cup team, which would be grossly unjust. And that brings us back to my original question: What will these penalties really affect? Unfortunately probably little.

The one positive that will come out of this little fiasco (and please don’t call it _____-gate) The next time you get pulled over for speeding, be sure you have some magnets in the glove compartment and then exercise your legal right to a dyno test. “See officer, I couldn’t possibly go 95 mph.

What do you think? Is it a case of “If you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying”? How should NASCAR handle this? Do you believe JD Gibbs that he didn’t know about it? Have your say in the comments.“