It’s only cheating when the other team does it

Some might fuss about team racing, but if that happens don’t expect anyone to accuse Hamlin or his Joe Gibbs Racing team of cheating.

It’s also common in NASCAR for a race leader to slow and allow a teammate to pass to lead a lap and earn five bonus points.

That’s what teammates do.

It’s paramount to become one of 12 drivers to qualify for NASCAR’s 10-race Chase for the Cup or, for that matter, one of 10 in each of the four pro categories to advance to NHRA’s six-race Countdown.

The most successful teams know how to play the system.

That’s what John Force did to perfection Monday when he let teammate Robert Hight beat him in the semifinals of the NHRA U.S. Nationals near Indianapolis. Hight needed to win to earn the 10th and final Funny Car spot in the last event before the Countdown.

Force was extremely slow leaving the starting line and then lost traction. He was locked into the top 10 and would have been a fool not to let Hight win. That result dropped reigning Funny Car champion Cruz Pedregon from 10th to out of championship contention.

Force didn’t create the NHRA championship format or make the rule that allows him to field the maximum four cars in a pro category.

An ESPN reporter was with Pedregon near the starting line as Hight took the 10th spot. Of course, had Pedregon not lost to Force in the previous round, he would’ve been racing and not whining.

"Force cheats," Cruz told ESPN. "He manipulates the outcomes of races, and he should be ashamed of himself."

If anyone is an expert at taking a dive for a teammate, it’s Pedregon, who played a pivotal role by cheating — his word, not mine — when he let younger brother Tony Pedregon beat him in a race two years ago.

In the semifinals of the NHRA event in October 2007 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Cruz manipulated — his word, not mine — the outcome when he let his championship-chasing brother beat him. Cruz reacted uncharacteristically slow to the starting light and then smoked the tires.

Tony earned 20 points for that win and then added 20 more for winning in the final round. Had Cruz beaten Tony that day, it would have cost Tony 40 points; Tony won the championship by 19.

Moments after Hight beat Force on Monday, their teammate, Ashley Force Hood, eliminated Tony en route to becoming the first woman to win a U.S. National Funny Car title.

At the end of the dragstrip in the shutdown area, Tony ignited Force by repeating the claims of cheating that his brother had made at the starting line.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Tony yelled to Force, who erupted with some comments that he told me he regrets. NHRA fined Force $10,000 on Friday for pushing an NHRA security official during the brouhaha.

In an ESPN interview minutes after the televised exchange between the two, Tony implied Force orchestrated race results within his team when he drove for Force from 1996 to 2003.

"I’ve got eight years in the bank with John. … I know what goes on," said Tony, who won the 2003 championship for Force a year before leaving to start his own team.

Based on the Pedregons’ new definition of cheating, Tony’s 2007 title was sullied by what his brother did to help him in Las Vegas. If it wasn’t wrong then, it wasn’t wrong for Force to do what he did Monday.

Tony must not feel guilty enough about how he won championships because I don’t believe he’s offered to return the trophies, diamond rings and bonuses he received — either the one impacted by his brother’s dive or the one he implied was tainted by Force’s intervention.

What goes around comes around, even in the sport of straight-line drag racing.

Jeff Wolf’s motor sports column is published Friday. He can be reached at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247. Visit Wolf’s motor sports blog at lvrj.com/blogs/heavypedal/ throughout the week.