ESPN Sprint Cup

There is a legendary story about one of the late Smokey Yunick's more infamous confrontations with NASCAR inspectors many years ago when they knew he was cheating on his fuel mileage.

They were determined to catch him that day and spent a considerable amount of time dismantling his car's fuel system in their attempt to figure out where he was hiding extra fuel. They removed the fuel tank and fuel lines and did everything they could think of to figure out just how he was doing it. They could not figure it out so Yunick smugly threw the fuel tank in the trunk, jumped in the car and drove it from Daytona International Speedway to his shop several miles away.

If you are not familiar with the name Smokey Yunick then you need to read about one of NASCAR's most notorious characters. Back then his name was synonymous with "innovation" or bending the rules and getting away with it. However, he was never satisfied to just bend the rules and get away with it, he took great pleasure in flaunting his accomplishments in front of the befuddled inspectors and embarrassing them -- like the time he drove away with the fuel tank disconnected and laying loose in the trunk. In an effort to save face, the NASCAR inspectors claimed that there was enough fuel left in the fuel line to have allowed Yunick to drive to his shop after their inspection. Yunick just grinned and shook his head at that explanation.

A lot of good stories can be told about "getting creative" back in the old days. Car owners and crew chiefs such as Yunick, Harry Hyde and Junior Johnson -- to name just a few -- were extremely innovative in their methods to become more competitive. Yunick once said that it was easy to cheat. Just do about 20 or so things illegal, make a couple of them obvious so the inspectors could find them to satisfy their egos that they had caught you and you'd get away with all the others. Back then the cat and mouse games between the inspectors and teams was all part of the show because the financial stakes were not nearly as high and sponsors, who are rightfully concerned about their images, were few and far between. Plus, back then, the gray areas in the rule book were much broader and could be exploited more easily than they can be today. Teams would frequently go beyond gray and venture into some charcoal colors.

I remember one race many years ago where a crew chief whose car finished second was livid that the winner passed inspection after the race. When asked why he was so mad he declared that he knew that SOB who won had to be cheating because we are and he beat us bad. If for no other reason, political correctness would dictate that you would never hear a declaration like that being made in today's Nextel Cup garage.

Some of the stories from the old days that deal with questionable fuel mileage might seem outrageous by today's rules but most of them are true to some degree or another. Most of them deal with exploiting the gray areas of the rule book that was much thinner back then.

The racer's mentality assumes that if it is not expressly forbidden then it must be acceptable in some form. For example, one rule back then was that the fuel line was to run from the fuel cell to the engine inside the right side frame rail and must be movable when disconnected at either end. This was to prevent teams from tapping into the line somewhere along that enclosed section of frame rail and feeding fuel from an alternative source. It said nothing about or limited the length of the fuel line that would be permitted, so an enterprising young driver and a crafty old car owner (the former is now a Nextel Cup commentator for a network and the latter is now retired and raising cattle in North Carolina -- I think the driver's last name started with Waltrip and the owner's last name started with Johnson, but I won't give you their first names to protect their identity) discovered that you could coil up about 1,500 feet (that's a quarter-of-a-mile!) of fuel line in that frame rail and still have it be movable as required by the rule book. That would gain you an extra lap or two at Daytona and much more on a shorter track. Suddenly they were getting exceptional fuel mileage. In fact, later in his career, Waltrip got his only Daytona 500 victory by achieving exceptionally good fuel mileage that day. Actually it was extremely remarkable fuel mileage.

Another team decided that their fuel might be dirty so they created and installed a fuel filter in the fuel line system. Perfectly legal at the time. However, that particular fuel filter could have filtered all the water flowing over Niagara Falls and still have had enough "filtering capacity" left to clean the Ohio River and most of its tributaries. OK, that might be a slight exaggeration but it was an exceptionally large fuel filter. Today, the size and location of fuel filters are regulated by NASCAR and the rule book has grown by another paragraph or two.

The fuel cells, how they are installed and how the fuel lines are connected, are strictly regulated by NASCAR because of the safety issues involved. Nevertheless, some teams found a way to expand their fuel cells by several different methods.

One method was to force compressed air into the rubber bladder inside the metal fuel box to expand them slightly to gain an extra half-gallon or so of fuel.

Another method was to install special expandable bolts in the retaining bars that go over the metal box that holds the fuel cell or rubber bladder. That way the box stayed in place in case of an accident but would raise up and allow an extra gallon or so to be added during the fueling process.

Still another team figured out they needed to route its oversized fuel vent tube in a roundabout way through the trunk area before it was connected to the fuel overflow vent on the left rear fender where you see the catch can crewman stand during a pit stop. Result: an extra gallon of fuel on board.

Several of these fuel expansion examples came about because the teams were legitimately concerned that they were not getting all of the fuel they were allowed into the fuel cells so they were simply trying to make sure they could get the full 22 gallons that was permitted back then. Sometimes things got stretched (literally) a little further than they should have been.

All of the above are examples of teams exploiting the gray areas of the rule book, but other examples could be classified as downright cheating. NASCAR looks at rules violations in two different ways. If, for example, they find something wrong on a car and it possibly could be attributed to a misinterpretation of the rule book then they will have one attitude about it. But if they find a part that is supposed to be made from steel, for example, and it is made from titanium or some exotic metal alloy then they have a whole different attitude. The first one "could" simply be an act of human error while the second one is a deliberate act of cheating. Kind of like an inadvertent versus flagrant or deliberate facemask call in pro football. One gets you a 5-yard penalty while the other will get you a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down for your opponent.

Filling the roll bars with volatile high octane gasoline would not seem to be a prudent way to gain a fuel mileage edge but that was done by several teams back in the good old days. Nor would it seem wise to create an auxiliary fuel tank out of your left rear quarter panel where the fuel is loaded into the car with the gas cans. You might be able to hide a couple of extra gallons in the hidden tank created by the false rear quarter panel. The driver could then pump it into the main tank as needed. In fact, I'm sure that you can. Every time you fuel the car you fill the auxiliary tank up as well. Obviously that was a very dangerous practice because it was likely the car would burst into flames if the left rear panel was crushed in a wreck.

How about welding little radio controlled nitrous capsules inside the intake manifold so that, when triggered, your car could have a short burst of power -- about 10 seconds -- to pass another competitor at a critical moment. NASCAR is constantly checking for and tries hard to make sure no foreign substances make their way into the fueling system but the teams work just as hard trying to find ways to see that they do.

Want a prime example from this year? Try Michael Waltrip at Daytona in February. Messing with the fuel is a major no-no in NASCAR's rule book so they threw it at Waltrip and hit him right between the eyes, thereby ruining his 2007 debut season with Toyota.

So now that we have established that there is a colorful history of innovation in the sport and that the rule book has been steadily expanded, refined and defined in NASCAR's diligent efforts to tighten the noose to totally stamp out cheating, could the culture of "getting more competitive" still possibly exist with all the fines, penalties and suspensions that are being handed down? Does a bear s--- in the woods?

I'm reminded of a police detective on TV who confidently bragged that "there is no such thing as the perfect crime!" How does he know that?! If it is a perfect crime then ... never mind. Remember that all of the above examples could be relayed to you because they became common knowledge after the fact. NASCAR discovered them or somebody bragged about them -- or in some way let the cat out of the bag -- otherwise some of those techniques might still be in use today. There are many more examples of "creative thinking" that I could disclose to you at this time but I'm saving them for my book. Just remember that you should always watch where you walk in the woods.

So are there ways that a driver/team can save fuel during a race and legitimately stretch their car's fuel mileage an extra couple of laps? Absolutely they can. They would probably need to start with that goal in mind when the engine builder assembles his engine and the tuner jets it, etc. The crew chief would have to select a gear ratio (tall gear -- the lower the number the higher the gear) that would maximize mileage but possibly sacrifice a little bit of performance. The driver would have to drive the car very deliberately versus slamming and jamming into and through the corners. He would need to ease in and out of the throttle and run a geometric apex (smooth line) that would keep the car as freed up as possible. He would need to draft as much as possible where drafting is a factor. And, any breaks -- such as cautions -- would need to fall in their favor. There is an old racing adage that states "slow down and go faster."

Most drivers, by nature, do not drive conservatively when they are racing. It is just not part of their breeding. However, drivers who can be smooth and consistent will win their share of races hence the slow down and go faster adage. Here's a good example of that axiom: Years ago, Neil Bonnett was driving for the Wood brothers. Bonnett was an aggressive driver to say the least. He was leading a race at Dover and had the entire field a lap down. The team told Bonnett to back off and just ride for a while because he had such a huge lead. His lap times immediately dropped and he started going faster so they again told him to slow down. He informed them that he had backed off the throttle and felt like he had slowed down. He had mentally slowed down and therefore became more smooth in his driving style and, as a result, physically went faster! It requires discipline, but a driver can conserve fuel by the manner in which he drives the car.

A "legitimate" fuel economy race is more likely to take place on an intermediate-size track than on a short track or a road course or super speedway because the odds or the risk-vs.-reward factor is different on the various types of tracks. On a short track, where it is nearly impossible to get into and out of the pits without going at least one lap down, and the lap times are very quick, the gamble to stay out is more risky than on an intermediate track such as Chicago or Kansas. If you run out of gas on a short track then you would lose multiple laps coasting back to pit road while trying to stay out of the way of the other competitors who are racing at full speed. That is a high risk and low reward scenario.

On a road course where you may not be able to make it back to pit road at all if you run out of gas it is an even higher risk -- ranking up there in the disaster range. I would not want to be a crew chief sitting in the Monday morning team meeting after I made that call and it backfired. Daytona, Talladega and Pocono, etc. would be similar type disasters because even if you do make it back, after coasting for an eternity, you will have taken yourself out of any opportunity to win the race or salvage a decent finish.

However, if you happen to have "an edge" that nobody else knows about, you might be able to stretch your fuel mileage a little bit further than what might reasonably seem possible to the uninformed. Consider this as an example: Today's Nextel Cup cars get roughly five miles to the gallon so if you can gain an extra two-tenths of a mile per gallon with a 13-gallon fuel cell by driving the car more conservatively then you should pick up 26-tenths that would equal one lap (plus a tenth) at Daytona. That is assuming you can get all of the fuel out of the fuel cell, which may or may not be the case.

So you are the crew chief and you pit under green with 27 laps to go to the end of the Daytona 500. Your calculations from your previous pit stops confirm that you are getting five miles per gallon that day. That computes to a maximum of 26 laps under green at Daytona but you have 27 laps to go! Hey driver, save me two-tenths of a mile in fuel and we can make it to the end and maybe win this thing. That is a low-risk with a high reward decision. A virtual no-brainer.

But what if you are 28 or even 30 laps from the end of the race? Then it becomes a much more questionable call based on your known fuel mileage. What do you do then? Well, you can pray for a caution because two caution laps usually are equal to one green flag lap. Maybe your teammate, who is already two laps down, can have a small spin in the back stretch and bring out the caution? Could that happen in NASCAR? Remember that bear in the woods?

The greater the distance between the end of the race and how far the known fuel mileage will get you then the more the decision moves from improbable to impossible. The old risk-vs.-reward equation.

Let's put it in poker terms. If you can squeeze 27 laps out of your fuel tank that might be the equivalent to holding a pair of aces in your hand. Twenty-eight laps? Then you might be holding a pair of 10s. Thirty laps? Then you are hoping to catch a card on the turn in the form of a caution. The risk vs. the reward rises dramatically once you get past the known distance you can go before running out of fuel. But what if you have an ace, or even a full house, hidden up your sleeve? Then the odds can be dramatically tilted in your favor and the risk is greatly reduced.

Now I'm not saying that today's Nextel Cup teams would cheat on their fuel mileage in some way but I just can't stop thinking about that bear over there in the woods. Let's just say there are times, when I am watching the closing laps of a race on TV that I would really like to see the ex-driver/commentator's face when they announce that so-and-so is going to try and make it to the end without stopping for fuel and they begin extrapolating the possibilities of him making it. I just want to see how big the smirk is on the ex-driver/commentator's face because that would tell me just how impossible he thinks it is going to be for that team to accomplish it legitimately.

I know I've seen some "miracle" finishes the past few years. In my opinion, taking a victory lap and doing an extended burnout when you were supposedly three or four laps short on fuel (plus the cool down lap) is the modern-day version of Smokey Yunick driving back to his shop with the fuel cell laying loose in the trunk.

So is there such a thing as the perfect crime? I'm betting that there is! Racing's version of it is: "It ain't cheating if you don't get caught." Wanna play some high stakes poker?

Whadaya mean there's an ace missing from the deck?!

Bill Borden is a former championship winning crew chief who operated David Pearson's Racing School for many years.