Here's my favorite:
Smokey Yunick might have been NASCAR's most fabled “innovator.” In 1966, he created a Chevy Chevelle that was a perfect seventh-eighths scale of the real thing – a car that led NASCAR to rewrite its rule book and inspection procedures.
LinkI'm sure MFAWG could regale us with some tales.
FWIW, didn't RTA (Pretty sure I don't need to).
'Cheating' has always been part of the sport, with this caveat:
There's a thin line between 'Cheating' and 'Finding holes in the rules', which is why most organizations have a 'Because We Said So' rule.
The 7/8 car was actually more common than first suspected. Seems Junior Johnson and Darrell Waltrip had a car that was a good in 2 inches narrower than 'Stock' for a couple of years. The template they used at the time to check for stock hood, roof and trunk measurements went over the top of the car, and they checked for width at the wheels, IIRC. So Junior and a few others would narrow the body works substantially to cut down on drag.
Did they have the shot in the frame rails one in there? That was another Junior specialty: Put lead shot in the frame rails so the car would weigh the right amount pre-race, and then pull the plug and let the shot out, losing 20 or 30 pounds. Now they tech and weigh post race.
My personal conspiracy theory is that DEI and Childress were using traction control at Daytona and Talladega, which would explain why they dominated there until almost the exact moment that NASCAR hired a competition director that actually knew what a traction control system looked like. I'd guess a few folks still use it, because now you can route TC through the MSD box and turn it off and on at will AND remotely. Almost IMPOSSIBLE to catch any one at it, and many sanctions struggle with it or just throw up their hands and quit looking.
if you aint cheatin you aint winnin.
That's actually a Yunick quote (apocryphal), but it's 'If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'.
Another personal favorite:
'It's our job to cheat, it's their job to catch us.'
