HOMESTEAD, Fla. – NASCAR’s season of doom and gloom sputters toward the checkered flag with a stout championship field but the inability to distance itself from everything that’s gone wrong in this trying year.
Martin Truex Jr.’s team is closing after the race because his primary sponsor is leaving the sport. Kevin Harvick’s team was caught cheating, then justified using an illegal spoiler because other teams were doing it first.
Fans hope the four championship-contending cars are legal but won’t know for sure until the cars have been inspected, long after the champagne celebration is over, because the culture of cheating in NASCAR lingers.
Television ratings hit a low in 26 events this year, and the cumbersome rulebook, a vulnerable inspection process and NASCAR’s officiating has received far too much attention of late.
NASCAR may or may not be for sale, the France family doesn’t often speak publicly and their intentions remain private. But the August drunk-driving arrest of Brian France forced a change at chairman and a definitive shift in NASCAR leadership. It was Ben Kennedy, the 26-year-old great grandson of NASCAR’s founder, who represented the series during the Camping World Truck Series celebration.