Records were set this past Tuesday in Charlotte but they weren’t the ones Carl Long has been trying to set for many years in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Circuit. Long, part-time driver and independent car owner, was tagged with a 12 race suspension and a 200 points penalty along with a $200,000.00 fine levied against his crew chief, Charles Swing, who was recently admitted to a hospital with heart problems on or about the time of the ruling by the National Stock Car Racing Commission.

The saga began on May 15th at Charlotte during practice for the All Star Race when the engine let go, prompting an inspection by NASCAR, who found it to be 0.17 over the maximum of 358 cubic inches. It’s interesting to note that Long, at that point, could have packed things up and left instead of allowing the officials to spec out the engine.

Rules are rules but one has to wonder if Long is a scapegoat, unlucky or merely a person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. NASCAR is very clear about powerplant size (350 cubic inches with 8 cubic inch leeway to allow for variances) and for the first time in 18 years an engine was found to be over the limit. It’s also the first time a driver was sanctioned in such a way even though some feel he was thrown a bone by the Commission allowing him to still compete in the Nationwide and Camping World Series.

Traditionally, rules are instituted to insure compliance and when necessary, provide guidelines for corrective action. In the view of this writer they are not intended to sentence someone to life imprisonment for a simple assault. Sure he should have checked the engine himself even though long time builder Ernie Elliot certified that it was correct but by no measure of fairness and reality should a ruling, any ruling, be so stiff as to threaten the very existence of a team that had already been struggling just to make ends meet week in, week out.

All of this raises an interesting question. Does anyone really believe the Commission would have enacted the same ruling if the driver had been Jimmie Johnson or Kyle Busch or Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

He was the guy who was going to pick up where his father left off. He was the guy positioned to attain greatness. He was the guy who had the talent and the means to carry on the Earnhardt tradition for yet another generation. If this were the case, then what happened to the driver and the expectations for success the racing world have saddled him with for the past eight years?

Living in the shadow of Dale Sr. hasn’t been easy. There was the messy divorce from DEI and then the honeymoon with the Hendrick organization that now seems frazzled and rudderless. There have been calls for the removal of cousin and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. as a possible solution but RH hasn’t decided to go there yet. Junior seems distracted at times and with one win in the last 103 outings, even with decent equipment, there seems to be more than meets the eye and now even the Junior Nation is pressing him for an explanation of why he has become their hard luck kid, week in and week out.

The truth of the matter might lie within Junior himself, the victim if you will, of the pressure and the never-ending hype he has had to contend with. NASCAR’s most popular driver is expected to consistently perform at a level far above that of his teammates, and his peers and the fans want him to be everything they imagine him to be; the reincarnation of his father.

It’s not unreasonable to say that the fame and mystique associated with the Earnhardt name has in some ways been a curse for Dale Junior. Even the fact that he’s called Junior means he has to prove himself in ways the drivers of the other 42 cars don’t. If they and the fans and the media could view things through the same set of glasses he does, the concept of pity would never be mentioned. Dale doesn’t want it and he sure doesn’t deserve it.

There have been times in the past when automobile manufacturers have moved in and out of NASCAR competition based upon either costs or rule changes but never has there been a time when a brand stepped out of line due to bankruptcy. Such is the dilemma facing Dodge’s parent company, Daimler-Chrysler, who recently filed for protection under Chapter 11.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Kurt Busch who presently occupies the number one position in the Sprint Cup Series driver standings, his Penske team, Gillett/Evernham and Richard Petty Motorsports. Everyone has been told by Dodge that it’s business as usual but you’ve got to think that in the back of their minds there’s a lot of doubt about what the future holds. What about engine and aero development? What about sponsorships? What about…? The list goes on. The situation isn’t much better on the GM side either, with plant closings and workers being laid off. How will that affect their participation in NASCAR?

There’s no point in re-hashing the reasons why things are the way they are because that’s already been done. What is important is how the proposed merger with Fiat will affect Dodge’s involvement in motorsports. Will there be a desire on behalf of the Italian automaker to continue fronting the cash necessary in light of the economic crisis or will a decision be made to pull the plug? That would trim the field to Ford, Chevy and Toyota. If GM decides to do the same, we’re looking at Ford and Toyota.

The fans look at this situation from a very different standpoint than the manufacturers: brand loyalties and variety vis-à-vis profit from sales. It’s always been this way and up until now they have been able to live next door to one another when times were good. Today that’s not the case because the bottom line was always in possession of the trump card. Let’s hope it doesn’t get thrown down.

There’s word going around that you’re thinking about becoming a NASCAR driver. Please say it ain’t true. We know you’re a decent driver in the IndyCar Series and that you’ve won at least one race in the five years you’ve been there, but NASCAR?

We thought that with all your endorsements and the adulation afforded you, you’d want to stay there and build up your resume a little bit more, maybe even win an Indianapolis 500 race, before you decided to mix it up with the “good ol’ boys”. Have you considered coming up through the ranks to get a feel for what it takes to throw around a 3400 pound car as opposed to your own that weighs a mere 1565, or did you want to dispense with the Camping World and Nationwide Series altogether and just start at the top?

We imagine that NASCAR would welcome you. Just think of all the attention you’d get ... and the endorsements?

We would like to see women racing in NASCAR, too, but there are others, past and present, like Janet Guthrie, Louise Smith, Shawna Robinson, Erin Crocker and Chrissy Wallace who came up through the ranks, like their male counterparts, to develop their skills and pay their dues before they were mentally and physically prepared to take on such a demanding sport. Even with their experience, Erin and Chrissy are still trying to secure solid sponsorships and the A-list status that goes along with it.

It’s contract renegotiating time for you this year. Use the opportunity to sign on with your friends at Andretti Green for another year or two and prove to the rest that you have what it takes to be a NASCAR driver and not just a female NASCAR driver.

What was it about this 2.66 mile racetrack that resulted in a near catastrophe this past Sunday? SAFER barriers, roof flaps and restrictor plates were supposed to eliminate the bedlam of years past but Talladega still remains one step away from disaster in the minds of many. Will the answer lie in what’s done after someone gets killed or is there another way to avoid the inevitable before it’s too late?

In 1987, Bobby Allison earned a few frequent flyer miles when he went airborne and slammed into the fence not far from where Edwards did, which led to restrictor plates being mandated for Talladega and Daytona that same year. It brought the speeds down but in recent years the cars have been inching up toward 200 mph and beyond once again. In 1994, roof flaps came into reality to prevent further excursions into the upper atmosphere and in 2002, Talladega went through an extreme makeover when SAFER barriers were added to decrease the effects of wall impacts. That sounds great but there’s one wild card left in the deck and that’s the drivers themselves.

Like all living things on this planet, race drivers find a way around obstacles that are put in their way and the ones at NASCAR are more adept than most. We’re not talking about breaking the rules here; we’re talking about maximizing what you already have at your disposal. It became apparent in restrictor plate races that your ability to move toward the front of the parade required a “buddy” and a whole lot of bump drafting. Find one and you are good for an additional 5-7 mph. This tactic works fine as long as nobody makes a mistake. Get out of shape and you’ll send a sizeable number of your peers to the garage for the remainder of the day.

Cutting too fine of a line, late in the race can make you either a hero or the master of disaster and NASCAR had left it up to the drivers to establish an unwritten rule as to what was acceptable when one chose to engage in the art of bump drafting. It seems at this point that over-aggressiveness and risk-taking tends to override reason to the extent that the intervention of a higher power is needed to avert something no one would ever want to see.