NASCAR teams are famously known for exploiting the grey areas in the rulebook to give them even the slightest bit of advantage over their competition. However, these ‘techniques’ can sometimes be so blatant that it can become rather difficult to draw the line between the grey area and straightforward cheating. And doing it right in front of the technical inspector? That was unheard of, but that was exactly what Ben Leslie and the rest of the Roush Racing crew did back in the early 2000s.

When Ben Leslie’s crew played with the NASCAR officials

“He’d [NASCAR inspector] get all mad because then when he turned it back on, it erased it, it went back to zero.” Historically, cars have always had a limit on the fuel that they can carry at once. While it has been reduced to 18 gallons now, back in the early 2000s, when Mark Martin was driving for Roush Racing, the limit was set at 22 gallons.

But Leslie, who became Martin’s crew chief in 2002, had a unique approach to overcome that limit. Before the races, officials would inspect the car and the fuel can, making sure that it didn’t cross the limit. However, the moment the reading would start going beyond the limit, some other crew member would turn the pump off, which resets the scale, dropping it to zero. While this seemed too straightforward, they made sure to play it smartly sometimes: “So then, you know, you do that a time or two, and you make the fuel guy mad, so, ‘well, let’s put some fuel in it before we go over there so we don’t, we don’t keep just showing how blatant we are’.”

Having more fuel in NASCAR has always helped the drivers. Overfilling enabled the teams to pit less and make the most positions while others pitted. Even the smallest bit of difference, even by two or three gallons, would help the teams make that difference. Moreover, the measuring scales, close to three decades ago, were never very accurate, so teams like Roush managed to play around with them.

While exploiting these grey areas has been rather common in NASCAR, it has sometimes gone to the extreme. And around the same time when the Roush crew did this, another team found itself in the middle of massive trouble.

When Michael Waltrip found himself in trouble for fuel ‘adulteration’

Michael Waltrip had already become a household name in NASCAR by the time the 2007 season kicked off. The former two-time Daytona 500 winner was competing for his own team this time around, but he had quite a rough start, and not exactly because of performance.

During the Speedweeks qualifying for the season-opener, the team was found to be running a fuel additive in their car. As per the reports, it was odourless and silicone-like. While NASCAR never revealed what the exact chemical makeup of the additive was, it was believed to increase the engine’s overall power delivery, making the car much more competitive than its competition. While it wasn’t exactly ‘jet fuel,’ reports suggested that the additive was related to it.

“I don’t think we’ll ever put this behind us, but we’ll try to do better in the future,” Michael Waltrip had said after his team was caught for the same.

NASCAR did not go easy on the penalties. Waltrip’s crew chief, David Hyder, and team director were suspended immediately. Moreover, the Hyder was also fined $100,000, and Waltrip was docked 100 driver points (before the season even officially started). This was the largest monetary fine in the sport at the time.

Michael Waltrip attempted to save Toyota’s image, claiming that the OEM had nothing to do with the mix-up: “This is my fault,” he said. “You can’t be skeptical of Toyota. You have to look straight at me.”

It’s safe to say that NASCAR has rough ways for instances like these. However, when a team is only exploiting the grey areas, like Roush did back in the day, there isn’t a lot that can be done. The sport might end up making changes to the regulations, but meanwhile, the teams make the most of the loophole.