GETTING AN EDGE

INDIANAPOLIS – Rule-conscious NASCAR supposedly has a more defined line these days between crew chief creativity and cheating on car setups.

But in a sport in which cheating has existed since the first race in 1949, are the crew chiefs really adhering to the rules – or are they so clever they’re just not getting caught?

When NASCAR sent Chad Knaus home for a rules violation after Daytona 500 qualifying in February, the message was clear: Crew chiefs who tinker in the gray areas of the rule book would be subject to stiff penalties.

Knaus found a way to raise the rear window of Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 car, thus reducing drag and improving the aerodynamics. Labeled a cheater by some but lauded as an innovator by others in the garage, Knaus was served a four-race suspension, $25,000 fine and put on probation for the rest of 2006.

“They hit Chad hard, but they had never caught onto it,” said Tony Eury Jr., crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. “I know of two other cars that were in the top five that day that had it and got rid of it before NASCAR got there. Word spread real quick.”

Only one Nextel Cup crew chief – Richard Labbe, who worked on Dale Jarrett’s car – has been suspended since this year’s Daytona. Eight rules violations for Nextel Cup car setups this season are far fewer than the numbers last year, when 49 were punished in Nextel Cup and 47 in the feeder Busch Series.

In the wake of continual Busch cheating, NASCAR president Mike Helton delivered a stern challenge to all series competitors in a prerace drivers’ meeting at Chicagoland Speedway last month.

“Everybody’s a whole lot better off if everybody plays within the box,” he said. “If you choose not to do that, if you choose to test the rules and regulations, we are going to react more severely than you’ve seen us react in the past.”

Tough talk translated: This isn’t last year, when crew chiefs decided it was worth the risk because slap-on-the-wrist fines and forfeiture of a few championship points were acceptable tradeoffs for a top-five run.

But those entrusted with preparing the cars for today’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard acknowledge at some point, somebody is going to push it.

“They’re going to make an example of somebody,” said crew chief Todd Berrier, who was sent home twice for seven weeks last season for rules violations on Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 car.

Added Roy McCauley, crew chief on the No. 2 car of Kurt Busch, “The Cup series (penalties) are going to be even worse. When they start taking away 50, 100 or 150 points, I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.”

While some crew chiefs have praised Knaus, others refused to give him credit for bending the rules – he’s been penalized seven times for car setup violations in the past five years. Some see a distinct difference between changing a car to take advantage of a gray area and blatantly cheating.

“People just talk when you’re doing good, like (Tony) Stewart is doing good or the 24 (car of Jeff Gordon) is doing good, so it’s like, ‘Oh, they found a trick,’ ” said Labbe, a 19-year NASCAR veteran who was recently fired for reasons not made public.

“It seems like our sport is all about tricks because aero(dynamics) is so close, engines are so close, the driver talent is so good. It’s just like whoever finds the next trick makes it work and does good.”

Crew chiefs agree NASCAR is smarter about enforcement. It helps to have someone wise to the ways of the garage, such as second-year vice president of competition Robin Pemberton, a respected crew chief for two decades.

“Our goal is to make sure that everybody knows they’re playing on a level playing field, that they all know we’re inspecting everybody the same, that they all know they’re not getting beat by someone who is skirting the rules to gain an advantage,” Pemberton said.

Pemberton is confident that crew chiefs such as Knaus and Berrier have learned a lesson. He called Berrier “a model crew chief right now,” and said of Knaus, “You see how many times he’s been punished since Daytona? Zero. He’s mended his ways.”

Regardless of the tough talk from above, cheating can still be rationalized as a necessary evil.

“It comes from us all having tens of millions of dollars and having a million people working on a million different things, and it’s a game of advantages,” Berrier said.

“And it’s just a game. You’re not going to go to hell for it. At the end of the day, that’s what matters.”