That's Racing: Too cozy for comfort

NASCAR teammates are tip-toeing through an ethical minefield as they persist in giving each other free passes during races. It’s the equivalent of an NFL team giving an opponent free first downs.

Formula One racing was recently rocked by a scandal after a driver intentionally crashed in order to help his teammate win the race. That should scare the daylights out of NASCAR, given the growing “cooperation” among teammates.

Earlier this season Mark Martin was leading a race when it appeared that he deliberately slowed down and allowed teammate Jimmie Johnson to pass him for the lead — collecting five bonus points. Later in another race Johnson repaid the favor by giving Martin a free pass.

Martin and Johnson each collected points they didn’t earn — points that could have been critical in deciding who made the NASCAR playoffs and got to compete for the championship.

It wasn’t the first time there has been blatant finagling with the running order of a race.

TV commentator Andy Petree admitted that when he was a team owner his driver, Ken Schrader, was about to be passed by Terry Labonte late in a race. Petree asked Labonte’s team to order Labonte to back off, preserving Schrader’s position and “earning” him a spot in the Top 10 by one point.

Petree saw nothing wrong with tampering with the finish of a race. Wonder how the 11th-place driver felt, getting bumped out of the Top 10 by Andy’s “arrangement?”

In other sports that’s called points fixing.

Some will argue that it’s a big leap from giving a teammate a free pass to intentionally crashing. But once crossed, the ethical line becomes hazy. If it’s OK to give a teammate five points, how about giving him 10? Or 20? Or 40? Championships have been decided by less.

Once crossed, the ethical line becomes hazy.

The situation is magnified in the Championship Chase when each point and each position becomes ultra-critical. If one teammate is eliminated from contention but still on the track, how tempting might it be for him to have a timely spin to aid a championship-contending teammate who desperately needed a caution?

What if the boss ordered it, as happened in the Formula One debacle?

When a driver gives a teammate a free pass he’s cheating every other driver behind them on the track and below them in the point standings. It should be NASCAR’s worst nightmare: Today a free pass, tomorrow a fake spin for a win.

Would any driver really go that far to aid a teammate? Ask the fixers in Formula One.