There’s cheating and then there’s outright stupidity. Such was the case with Michael Waltrip Racing, when Waltrip’s No. 55, in his and his team’s very first race driving for Toyota, the 2007 Daytona 500, was caught with an illegal additive — often described as jet fuel — in its intake system.
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The illegal additive, which was a surreptitious way of adding horsepower in a virtually undetectable manner, was discovered during pre-qualifying inspection when a NASCAR official noticed a strange smell coming out from under the hood, as well as the fuel having a different color than normal.
While Waltrip and his team argued that somehow oil got into the fuel mixture, NASCAR wasn’t buying the MWR story. The end result was the biggest infraction that the sport had seen up to that point — a record 100-point deduction and a $100,000 fine for crew chief David Hyder.
Waltrip was permitted to race a backup car, which NASCAR officials thoroughly inspected. Meanwhile, Hyder and team director Bobby Kennedy were both ejected from Daytona International Speedway and both were suspended indefinitely.
“Indefinite means very long,” Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice-president of competition, said at the time. “They were ejected, so they can’t appeal not being here this weekend. At some future time, they’ll apply and ask to be let back in, and we’ll sit down and look into it.”
What did Waltrip say in his and his team’s defense?
Waltrip initially tried to deflect blame. “This is not the action of an organization, a manufacturer, or a sponsor. This was an independent act done without consent or authorization from me or any of my executive management team,” Waltrip claimed, distancing his team from the scandal.
Waltrip would eventually take the blame for the incident, saying, “This is my fault.”
Throughout its history, NASCAR has seen episodes of cheating or “pushing the envelope” as some might say. Some greats such as NASCAR Hall of Famers Junior Johnson and Darrell Waltrip have invoked the same saying: “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”
But there’s always one thing to remember: If you are trying to cheat, and if NASCAR finds out, you’re going to find yourself in big trouble. Will the risk ultimately be worth the reward?
