75 things for NASCAR’s 75th anniversary: Biggest scandals
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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
We are closing in on the final handful of weeks of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, the stock car series’ 75th anniversary campaign. To celebrate, each week through the end of the season, Ryan McGee is presenting his top five favorite things about the sport.
Top five best-looking cars? Check. Top five toughest drivers? We’ve got it. Top five mustaches? There can be only one, so maybe not.
Without further ado, our 75 favorite things about NASCAR, celebrating 75 years of stock car racing.
Previous installments: Toughest drivers | Greatest races | Best title fights | Best-looking cars | Worst-looking cars | Biggest cheaters | Biggest what-ifs | Weirdest racetracks | Best racetracks
Five biggest scandals
As October looms, so do the final six rankings of our NASCAR 75th anniversary celebration top five all-time greatest lists. A few weeks back we listed the greatest cheaters, and the immediate response on social media was, “Yeah, but what about that time that one guy did that thing that was so scandalous?!” For those who wondered, “Why TH isn’t McGee responding to me?” it’s because I knew this week’s list was coming.
From rule benders to rule breakers to people who seemed to have forgotten there were any rules at all, it’s time to grab a list of policies you’re totally going to ignore, a redacted court document and a suspended NASCAR license as we present our top five all-time biggest NASCAR scandals.
Honorable mention: NASCAR’s D.B. Cooper
On May 2, 1982, a man identified as L.W. Wright competed at the Talladega Superspeedway in a Chevy Monte Carlo, starting 36th and finishing 39th despite having never run a Cup Series race before or since. As soon as his run in the Winston 500 was over, he vanished, taking the money he had received from investors, parking the race car purchased from Sterling and Coo Coo Marlin, and then disappearing for 40 years, despite the efforts of authorities and lawyers to track him down.
He resurfaced one year ago, speaking with longtime NASCAR journalist Rick Houston at a secret location and still proclaiming his innocence. We broke the news here on ESPN with this May 2022 story.
5. The King’s big engine
There are only three rules that even the shadiest of racing innovators still shake their heads at: “rocket fuel” gas additives, illegal use of tires and running an engine that is larger than regulations allow. On Oct. 9, 1983, the King of Stock Car Racing found himself caught up in a royal mess that involved two of those three NASCAR no-nos.
Richard Petty earned the 198th win of his career, the latest step in his much-hyped march toward the magical 200-victory mark, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, holding off fellow Hall of Famers Darrell Waltrip, Benny Parsons and Terry Labonte. But in postrace inspection, the famous No. 43 Pontiac was found to have a 381.983-cubic-inch engine, well over the allowed 358-cubic-inch limit. What’s more, during the final pit stop, the team had bolted left-side tires on the right side, also way against the rules.
After three hours of deliberation, it was determined that the win would stand, but Petty was stripped of 104 points and handed a then-record $30,000 fine. Years later, mechanic Maurice Petty, himself a Hall of Famer, confessed to it all. That night, big brother Richard (in)famously said, “We have accepted NASCAR’s penalty. I’m only the driver, and I didn’t know anything about the motor or tires.”
4. Wendell Scott’s missing trophy
On a cold Dec.1, 1963, evening at Jacksonville Speedway Park in Florida, the poor-but-proud powder blue No. 34 Chevy of Wendell Scott outlasted a field of 21 rivals, taking the checkered flag a full two laps ahead of second place Buck Baker. As was the motorsport modus operandi at the time, though, protests were filed and the hand-scored lap sheets kept by NASCAR and the individual teams were rounded up for review.
Baker was declared the winner, taking the Victory Lane photos and collecting the trophy. Later that night, NASCAR admitted a scoring error and declared Scott the rightful winner, but Baker and the trophy were long gone.
“They all knew I had won that race,” Scott said decades later. “But they didn’t want a Black man kissing that beauty queen in Victory Lane.”
That’s right, Scott was the first — and, until Bubba Wallace in 2021, the only — Black race winner in the NASCAR Cup Series. NASCAR didn’t give Scott a new trophy for years, finally righting that inexplicable wrong in 2021, 57 years after his win. Scott was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015.
3. Aaron Fike’s heroin confession
NASCAR’s original drug-related scandal took place in 1988, when Tim Richmond, amid rumors that he was suffering from AIDS, was suspended for testing positive for banned substances and the sanctioning body’s very loose “We’ll test only if we have our suspicions” approach was born. That policy stood until April 2008.
What changed? Aaron Fike, a Truck Series competitor who had been arrested one year earlier for heroin possession, admitted to ESPN that he had raced with heroin in his system multiple times, even finishing in the top five the same week he was arrested. Fike’s confession forced NASCAR to overhaul its drug policy, publishing a formal list of banned substances and implementing random drug testing more in line with other major sports.
That new policy led to another giant scandal, the May 2009 suspension of driver and five-time Cup Series race winner Jeremy Mayfield, who tested positive for methamphetamines and began a yearslong series of lawsuits. For the full story behind Fike’s confession, read this ESPN The Magazine story from April 8, 2008.
2. ‘Spingate’
We touched on this briefly a few weeks ago in our list of top five biggest cheaters, but the details of what took place on Sept. 7, 2013, at Richmond International Raceway are worth diving into. Entire chapters of books and endless hours of podcasts have been dedicated to that night, but here’s the SparkNotes version: In the final cutoff event for the 10-race Chase postseason field, driver Clint Bowyer of Michael Waltrip Racing was sent a code by his crew chief Brian Pattie — “Is your arm starting to hurt? Must be hot in there.” — immediately followed by a Bowyer spin that brought out the caution flag with less than 10 laps remaining. Then, with three laps remaining, MWR GM/VP Ty Norris ordered Brian Vickers to make a green-flag pit stop.
It was all designed to help teammate Martin Truex Jr. move up in the field and make the Chase cut. It worked. For a minute. Then NASCAR cracked the MWR code.
MWR was fined a record $300,000 for manipulating the outcome of the race and the postseason, Norris was suspended; all three crew chiefs were placed on probation; and all three drivers were docked 50 points, which knocked Truex back out of the postseason field. Embarrassed sponsor NAPA cut ties with the team, putting Truex’s career in jeopardy (he recovered with Furniture Row and Joe Gibbs Racing) and setting MWR on the path that would ultimately end with its closure two years later.
1. Jimmy Hoffa vs. NASCAR
Yes, you read that right. The infamous union leader, who has inspired Hollywood movies with his questionable business practices and inspired a million conspiracy theorists searching for his final resting place, went to war with NASCAR. It didn’t go well.
It started in 1960, when driving ace Curtis Turner and entrepreneur Bruton Smith needed funding for their under-construction and already-bankrupt Charlotte Motor Speedway. Hoffa’s Teamsters union stepped up, offering the needed cash in exchange for the formation of a NASCAR drivers’ union. The Federation of Professional Athletes (FPA) was born, and Turner, along with fellow superstar Tim Flock, recruited the paddock with the promise of more prize money, a pension plan, health and death benefits, safety advancements, even scholarship funds for the children of deceased members.
NASCAR founder and president Bill France didn’t have so much of a problem with all that, but he was adamantly against something Hoffa was asking for in return, the establishment of horse track-style betting windows at speedways.
“Organized gambling would be bad for our sport,” France wrote in an open letter to the FPA. “And it would spill innocent blood on our racetrack. I will fight it to the end!”
He did, going to court vs. the Teamsters … in Florida.
“We went down there to Daytona with all these super-high-powered, high-dollar New York lawyers,” Flock recalled shortly before his death in 1998. “And those country lawyers of Bill France’s just whipped ’em. Our guys would be pouring their hearts out in the courtroom, and the judge would be sitting up there reading comic books and magazines. We never had a chance.”
Drivers bailed on the FPA, which folded in 1962, and Turner and Flock were slapped with lifetime bans. Turner returned briefly in 1965, but Flock remained on the outs until his death in 1998, finally elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2014. Turner was voted in two years later.
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Jesse Rogers
The last-place Washington Nationals fired president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez, the team announced Sunday.
Rizzo, 64, and Martinez, 60, won a World Series with the Nationals in 2019, but the team has floundered in recent years. This season, the Nationals are 37-53 and stuck at the bottom of the National League East after getting swept by the Boston Red Sox this weekend at home. Washington hasn’t finished higher than fourth in the division since winning the World Series.
“On behalf of our family and the Washington Nationals organization, I first and foremost want to thank Mike and Davey for their contributions to our franchise and our city,” principal owner Mark Lerner said in a statement. “Our family is eternally grateful for their years of dedication to the organization, including their roles in bringing a World Series trophy to Washington, D.C.
“While we are appreciative of their past successes, the on-field performance has not been where we or our fans expect it to be. This is a pivotal time for our club, and we believe a fresh approach and new energy is the best course of action for our team moving forward.”
Mike DeBartolo, the club’s senior vice president and assistant general manager, was named interim GM on Sunday night. DeBartolo will oversee all aspects of baseball operations, including the MLB draft. An announcement will be made on the interim manager Monday, a day before the club begins a series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Rizzo has been the top decision-maker in Washington since 2013, and Martinez has been on board since 2018. Under Rizzo’s leadership, the team made the postseason four times: in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019. The latter season was Martinez’s lone playoff appearance.
“When our family assumed control of the team, nearly 20 years ago, Mike was the first hire we made,” Lerner said. “Over two decades, he was with us as we went from a fledging team in a new city to World Series champion. Mike helped make us who we are as an organization, and we’re so thankful to him for his hard work and dedication — not just on the field and in the front office, but in the community as well.”
The Nationals are in the midst of a rebuild that has moved slower than expected, though the team didn’t augment its young core much during the winter. Led by All-Stars James Wood and MacKenzie Gore, Washington has the second-youngest group of hitters in MLB and the sixth-youngest pitching staff.
The team lost 11 straight games in a forgettable stretch last month. And during a 2-10 run in June, Washington averaged just 2.5 runs. Since June 1, the Nationals have scored one run or been shut out seven times. In Sunday’s 6-4 loss to Boston, they left 15 runners on base.
There was industry speculation over the winter that the Nationals would spend money on free agents for the first time in several years, but that never materialized. Instead, the team made minor moves, signing free agents Josh Bell and Michael Soroka, trading for first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and re-signing closer Kyle Finnegan. Now, the hope is a new management team, both on and off the field, can help change the franchise’s fortunes.
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David Schoenfield
The rosters for the 2025 MLB All-Star Game will feature 19 first-timers — and one legend — as the pitchers and reserves were announced Sunday for the July 15 contest at Truist Park in Atlanta.
Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner who made his first All-Star team in 2011, was named to his 11th National League roster as a special commissioner’s selection.
Kershaw, who became only the fourth left-hander to amass 3,000 career strikeouts, is 4-0 with a 3.43 ERA in nine starts after beginning the season on the injured list. He joins Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera as a legend choice, after the pair of sluggers were selected in 2022.
Kershaw said he didn’t want to discuss the selection Sunday.
Among the first-time All-Stars announced Sunday: Dodgers teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto; Washington Nationals outfielder James Wood and left-hander MacKenzie Gore; Houston Astros ace Hunter Brown and shortstop Jeremy Pena; and Chicago Cubs 34-year-old left-hander Matthew Boyd.
“It’ll just be cool being around some of the best players in the game,” Wood said.
First-time All-Stars previously elected to start by the fans include Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson, Baltimore Orioles designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn and Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Overall, the 19 first-time All-Stars is a drop from the 32 first-time selections on the initial rosters in 2024.
Kershaw would be the sentimental choice to start for the National League, although Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes, who leads NL pitchers in ERA and WAR, might be in line to start his second straight contest. Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler, a three-time All-Star, is 9-3 with a 2.17 ERA after Sunday’s complete-game victory and also would be a strong candidate to start.
“I think it would be stupid to say no to that. It’s a pretty cool opportunity,” Skenes said about the possibility of being asked to start by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I didn’t make plans over the All-Star break or anything. So, yeah, I’m super stoked.”
Kershaw has made one All-Star start in his career, in 2022 at Dodger Stadium.
Among standout players not selected were New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto, who signed a $765 million contract as a free agent in the offseason, and Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, who had made eight consecutive All-Star rosters since 2016.
Soto got off to a slow start but was the National League Player of the Month in June and entered Sunday ranked sixth in the NL in WAR among position players while ranking second in OBP, eighth in OPS and third in runs scored.
The players vote for the reserves at each position and selected Wood, Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres as the backup outfielders. Kyle Stowers also made it as a backup outfielder as the representative for the Miami Marlins.
Unless Soto later is added as an injury replacement, he’ll miss his first All-Star Game since his first full season in 2019.
The Dodgers lead all teams with five representatives: Kershaw, Yamamoto and starters Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith. The AL-leading Detroit Tigers (57-34) and Mariners have four each.
Tigers ace Tarik Skubal will join AL starters Riley Greene, Gleyber Torres and Javier Baez, while Raleigh, the AL’s starting catcher, will be joined by Seattle teammates Bryan Woo, Andres Munoz and Julio Rodriguez.
Earning his fifth career selection but first since 2021 is Texas Rangers righty Jacob deGrom, who is finally healthy after making only nine starts in his first two seasons with the Rangers and is 9-2 with a 2.13 ERA. He has never started an All-Star Game, although Skubal or Brown would be the favorite to start for the AL.
The hometown Braves will have three All-Stars in Acuna, pitcher Chris Sale (his ninth selection, tied with Freeman for the second most behind Kershaw) and first baseman Matt Olson. The San Francisco Giants had three pitchers selected: Logan Webb, Robbie Ray and reliever Randy Rodriguez.
The slumping New York Yankees ended up with three All-Stars: Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Max Fried. The Mets also earned three All-Star selections: Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz.
“Red carpet, that’s my thing,” Chisholm said. “I do have a ‘fit in mind.”
Rosters are expanded from 26 to 32 for the All-Star Game. They include starters elected by fans, 17 players (five starting pitchers, three relievers and a backup for each position) chosen in a player vote and six players (four pitchers and two position players) selected by league officials. Every club must be represented.
Acuna, Wood and Raleigh are the three All-Stars who have so far committed to participating in the Home Run Derby.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — The New York Yankees were seemingly in deep trouble Sunday when Juan Soto cracked a pitch to left field in the seventh inning.
The New York Mets, down two runs, were cooking up a rally with no outs. Francisco Lindor stood at first base, Pete Alonso loomed on deck, and Brandon Nimmo was in the hole. This was the heart of the Mets’ potent lineup. Given the Yankees’ recent woes, fumbling their two-run lead and suffering a Subway Series sweep at the hands of their neighbors — and a seventh straight loss — seemed almost fated.
Then Cody Bellinger charged Soto’s sinking 105 mph line drive, made a shoestring catch and fired a strike to first base for an improbable double play to secure a skid-snapping 6-4 win — and perhaps rescue the Yankees from another dreadful outcome.
“Considering the context of this week and everything,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, “that’s probably our play of the year so far.”
Soto’s line drive off Mark Leiter Jr. had a 10% catch probability, according to Statcast, but Bellinger, a plus defender at multiple positions who started at first base Saturday, was just able to snatch it before it touched the grass. Certain that he caught it clean, he made an 89.9 mph toss that reached first baseman Paul Goldschmidt on a line, over Lindor, who didn’t slide into the bag.
“I saw it in the air and had a really good beat on it,” said Bellinger, who went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk at the plate.
The Mets challenged the catch, but the call stood.
“That was incredible,” said Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge, who swatted his 33rd home run of the season in the fifth inning. “I’ve never seen something like that on the field.”
For the past week, a stretch Boone described as “terrible” for his ballclub, poor defense has been an issue for the Yankees. Physical errors. Mental lapses. Near disasters. The sloppiness helped sink a depleted pitching staff, more than offsetting the offense’s strong production.
That combination produced the team’s second six-game losing streak in three weeks and a three-game deficit in the American League East standings behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays.
The surging Blue Jays won again Sunday to extend their winning streak to seven games and keep their division lead at three games, but Bellinger’s glove and arm ensured it didn’t grow to four.
“That was an unbelievable play,” Goldschmidt said. “Amazing catch and absolute cannon to me at first. To make that play was a game-changing play and potentially game-winning play for us today. And we needed it.”
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