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The judge Mike Helton talks with CNNSI.com about rules, parity
Posted: Tuesday May 02, 2000 05:59 PM
Bill France is still the most powerful man in NASCAR -- but COO Mike Helton makes many of the day-to-day decisions. Helton has moved up quickly through the NASCAR ranks -- he joined the sanctioning body in 1994 -- and he is the man who makes most of the key decisions that affect Winston Cup drivers. It was Helton who handed down the penalties imposed on Jeremy Mayfield's team for using illegal fuel during last month's Diehard 500 at Talladega. Helton visited with CNNSI.com to discuss the Mayfield situation as well as the unprecedented parity surrounding the sport this year. CNNSI.com: How serious an offense was this? Helton: Well, we put fuel in with tires and cubic inches. There are certain areas that's pretty well understood in the garage area that are high sensitive areas and any fuel additive that attempts to increase horse power is a real serious issue to NASCAR. CNNSI.com: In handing down this penalty, are you also trying to send a message to other teams around the garages? I think that's pretty much understood. The whole system of violations is so that people won't do it again. In addition to penalizing the person who decided to go out on their own and do something different, the key is to maintain credibility in the garage area with all the competitors that they are all racing against the same odds. CNNSI.com: What exactly did this additive do for the car? Helton: Technically, I don't know. There's a debate going on whether it helped or hurt it. The issue was though from the rule books perspective and from policing of the sport perspective that there was an additive in the fuel that should not have been there. We determined it was a fuel additive that was designed to enhance the oxygen flow which therefore should enhance horsepower. But the principle behind the whole penalty was that it was an additive that should not have been there. CNNSI.com: Is a fuel additive something that you expect to see frequently at restrictor plate races.. where horsepower and speeds are limited? Helton: We hope that by our reaction we don't see it again. But there's a lot at stake today and the competition is stiff by design. We've been working for 52 years to create a very competitive sport and that is where we are at today. So, everybody goes as far as they can to be competitive. And that's the responsibility of NASCAR to step up to the plate and to police the sport so that everyone in the garage area feels comfortable and that they are on the same playing field. CNNSI.com: Why weren't the penalties stiffer? Helton: The end-result from our investigation which took a little longer than usual because there a fairly complicated situation that had some story lines to it that we had to circle back and follow-up on to confirm them. It was a crew member who acted very independently on his own without any knowledge of the driver or the crew chief or the car owner. Now that doesn't make it OK, but it certainly keeps it from being maybe more severe than it was. CNNSI.com: So Jeremy Mayfield and Michael Kranefuss knew nothing about this? Helton: We believe that neither the car owner or the driver knew anything about this as it happened in Talladega on Sunday, that's correct. CNNSI.com: And crew chief Peter Sospenzo didn't know anything about it either? Helton: We believe that the crew chief was unaware of what happened on Sunday at Talladega. But in the scheme of things in NASCAR, the crew chief is responsible for the actions of the crew members during an event. CNNSI.com: How widespread is the problem of teams attempting to circumvent the rules? Helton: We have a fairly good staff of inspectors working each weekend to police the sport in a manner to prevent these types of things from happening. Already this year for example, we've tested over 500 samples of fuel. So it's not a rampant occurrence. It's not something that goes on week in and week out. Part of the reason it doesn't is when it does happen, we try to react in a fashion to keep anyone from thinking about doing it forever if possible, but certainly for a while. CNNSI.com: Does this mean there will now be a tougher and more frequent inspection process? Helton: Not necessarily. We feel like we have a very tight inspection process today. The inspection process found this issue. We've found others over time. We're pretty comfortable with our inspection process being fairly thorough. CNNSI.com: You obviously talked with Gary Nelson about this. How was the decision was reached? Helton: There obviously was a lot of conversations going back and forth, including Bill France, Gary Nelson and others about how to handle this one since it was such a sensitive area to the garage area. The fuel situation is very sensitive as we've said earlier. So there were a lot of scenarios played out. Ultimately, the decision was made based on all of the facts we were able to recover from the investigation on whether or not it was the act of one crew member who acted irresponsible or it was an issue that was pre-meditated and designed by the crew chief or the driver and the car owner or a combination of those. So that's what drove us to our decision. CNNSI.com: Jeremy and his team are also under scrutiny for the height of the roof on their car at California. When will a decision on that be made? Helton: We expect to react to the roofline from California sometime before the Richmond race. Either tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday. CNNSI.com: And you've said the win won't be taken away from him. Helton: That's correct. CNNSI.com: Any indication of what that penalty will be? Helton: We'll wait until we react. Our biggest issue to yesterday and today was to get through the Talladega incident. This one we'll be able to react to either tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday. CNNSI.com: I figured I had to ask and try and get a scoop there. Helton: (laughs) I don't blame you for that. CNNSI.com: We've had 10 winners in 10 races this year, and the margin between teams is so close. Is there more pressure on teams to try and find an edge any way they can? Helton: I think there is. But one out of 499 times is what we're talking about this incident being. And I think for the most part the creativity of the crew members and the mechanics in the garage area are what's producing the close competitiveness. That puts a burden on NASCAR to police it closer, but that's OK. That's the environment that we want to have in the garage area is for so many teams to be competitive with each other. And also feel like they have a chance to compete against each other because they are playing by the same rules and are on the same playing field. I think the biggest issue is the fact that teams press very hard to come up with whatever element they can be competitive with within the rules. It's unusual for someone to go outside the rules. CNNSI.com: Can an 11th different winner take the checkered flag next week at Richmond? Helton: It's very possible. We were talking earlier in California about the different drivers who run well at Richmond that have not won yet as well as in Charlotte at the end of May. So it could be interesting the next couple of races to see what happens. CNNSI.com: Is it good for the sport that there hasn't been one dominant driver this season? Helton: I think it's OK. I think it's a message that the NASCAR Winston Cup Series has a very competitive sport. And there's are a lot of people who can be competitive in it and that's where we are at today. We have a lot of teams who have stepped up to the plate and who have committed themselves to be winners in our sport and that's what's putting the shows on the race track. And it ends up being that we've had 10 different winners after 10 races because we have so many of the teams and the drivers and the organizations inside the garage that have the ability to win races and that's strong. And we think that's an asset.
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