In this sport, points not money--talk.

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Author: Spencer, Lee lspencer@sportingnews.com

INSIDER

Stock car racing sprang from moonshiners who souped up their cars to outrun the revenuers. So we shouldn't be surprised that NASCAR's first strictly stock race on June 19, 1949, included the first disqualification. After Glen Dunnaway's '47 Ford was discovered to have illegal springs, Jim Roper was declared the winner.

Fast forward to Daytona 2006. Two cars were busted in the postqualifying inspection. Chad Knaus, crew chief of the No. 48 car driven by Jimmie Johnson, became an eight-time offender. NASCAR acted swiftly and suspended Knaus for at least the rest of Speedweeks â€" including Johnson's victory in the Daytona 500. Additional penalties handed out this week were consistent with past fines.

NASCAR came down hard on Knaus, but folks who hire such crew chiefs are willing to take a risk to gain an edge. Most car owners follow Richard Petty's philosophy: I don't tell my guys not to cheat. I tell my guys not to get caught.

The best NASCAR "inspectors" over the years have been the teams. They go ballistic when they discover a rival has done something to gain an unfair advantage and that activity has not yet been exposed. Teams rat each other out on a regular basis.

Plus, NASCAR itself has gotten better at catching violators. Expanding its inspection force and hiring former crew chiefs Gary Nelson and Robin Pemberton gave NASCAR an information pipeline and shrank the gray areas in which teams operate. With as many templates as NASCAR has for the current cars, there are far fewer ways to skirt the rules.

Would a fine ever be enough to curtail cheating altogether? No. Teams will change their ways only after NASCAR parks an offender's car for the weekend or docks a team the points it gained in a race if an infraction is discovered after the event.

The owners, drivers and crew chiefs have so much money that losing prize dollars does not matter to them. If Sunday's first-place prize of $1,505,124 were thrown back into the points fund, Hendrick Motorsports would feel a sting, but the organization hardly would be crippled. Fining a team or a driver 185 points would have ramifications, however.

It's embarrassing enough for an owner to tell a sponsor its driver didn't make the Chase for the Nextel Cup. It would be an even more difficult conversation if the driver didn't make it because the team had been docked points during the season. If the sponsor then pulled its support, that would be the biggest wakeup call of all.

When it comes to cheaters â€" park 'em if you got 'em.

PHOTO (COLOR): Separating Johnson and Knaus didn't matter at Daytona.

PHOTO (COLOR)

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By Lee Spencer