Cheating is Racing
Written by Jack Passey | 3rd January 2024 | Car Tales
People say rubbing is racing, but is it? The true expression should be cheating is racing. Throughout all of motorsport history designers, team principles and drivers have been looking for what’s known as the unfair advantage.
There have been many great examples, Redbulls flexible nose, Mercedes DAS system and the F-duct. But as innovative as the minds are in Formula 1, the true king of bending rules lived over the pond. A true stock car racer through and through, Smokey Yunick.
Henry "Smokey" Yunick was born May 25, 1923, growing up on a farm in Neshaminy, Pennsylvania and had to drop out of school to run the farm at age 16, upon the death of his father. Forcing him into full time work on the farm, Smokey became enamored with repairing the farm machinery with scrap cars and parts. This also blossomed into his first foray into motorsport, building motorbikes in the back of the barn and racing them at weekends; this is where he got his nickname, "Smokey," derived from the behavior of one of his motorcycles.
Years later Smokey’s reputation was starting to proceed him. Marshall Teague, a local stock car race team owner decided to take a chance with a young budding mechanic (with no knowledge of stock car racing I might add), inviting him to join the team. You know someone is destined for greatness when the first car they lay their hands on is “THE FABULOUS” Hudson Hornet, yes that’s right the Herb Thomas Hudson Hornet.
Yunick went on to be the head of his own team, a team which would become infamous for finding loopholes and bending rules as far as they could go… “If it’s not in the rule book, that means I can do it”. He tried many things over the years, culminating in his most famous car (that would never turn a wheel in anger) the #13 1968 Chevy Chevelle. Now everything that follows is all “rumors”, however solid enough that a jury would certainly charge you with guilty. The car was built solely for the Daytona 500, his masterpiece.
Legend has it that his particular Chevelle was a 7/8th scale of Chevrolets production car, a cheating feat of genius… This wasn’t true. The efforts of re-engineering a car on that magnitude far outway the rewards. However this didn’t mean that there weren't all sorts of other loopholes built into the car, mainly the chassis. The governing body’s rules never stated where in the car the chassis must be located, so to achieve optimum balance for ovals he moved the chassis back and over to the side. Partnering this with one of the first belly pan floors, a component that adds huge aerodynamic gains by cleaning up the airflow. I admit that’s a bit like trying to make a portable home more aerodynamic, but every gain matters in racing. To achieve this the floor was dropped from the body and rewelded several inches lower, shrouding the exhaust and even the back of the gearbox.
The exposed bodywork was subjected to a myriad of modifications, almost invisible to even the most die hard stock-car fans. The front bumper was shortened and capped, mating the edges of the wrap around chrome bumper flush with the front wings, simultaneously lengthening the bottom to create an air dam front lip. So you have three rule bends on a simple front bumper at this point. The roof was subject to some of Yunick's plastic surgery skills, a very slight (almost ducktail like) spoiler was subtly grafted on and blended in above the rear window.
To find another of these ingenious loopholes we need to move to the Daytona 500 scrutineering area, one of the inspections that needs to be cleared is fuel capacity. Yunick had already been caught cheating in this area years before, I’m sure you’ve all heard the story but for those that haven't a quick rundown. Rules stated the car could hold no more than a certain amount of fuel, now the bigger tank you have the more fuel, the more fuel the more you can pump into the engine in turn more power. To gain the advantage Yunick would build a tank 2 gallons bigger than permitted, then placing a basketball within the tank. During scrutineering the ball would be inflated meaning the correct amount of fuel would be measured to pass regulations, but come the race the ball would be deflated, and the remaining to gallons filled. Genius on a budget no?
“Half the 1970’s NASCAR rule book is because of me” - Henry ‘Smokey’ Yunick
Back to Daytona. The car had several violations, fuel NOT being one of them. In his protest and rage Yunick fired up the Chevelle and drove off… Leaving the fuel tank with the scrutineers. Not just to the pits, but to the team shop in Daytona beach. How is this possible? I hear you screaming. Well it’s another nice little loophole in the fuel regulations. The sanctioning body never stipulated how long or indeed wide the fuel lines had to be. Now the cars standard fuel line is roughly 5 ft long and 3/8th in diameter, however the fuel line in Yunick's Chevelle was, you could say, a tad bigger. Coming in at 11 ft long and a whole 2 inches in diameter, estimated to hold at least a couple of gallons if not more.
Sometimes his trick was just to examine the English language. Yunick showed up for a race with stock fender wells still installed on his Chevelle, even though the rules stated they could be removed. After the car qualified well due to improved aerodynamics, fellow competitors complained. "The rules say you MAY remove them. They don't say you HAVE to." After qualifying, Yunick promptly cut out the fender wells. After further complaints to NASCAR Smokey said, "The rules don't say WHEN I can remove them."
After retiring and campaigning to higher safety standards, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990, Smokey was the NASCAR Mechanic of the Year twice. This is all for a man who once said “Half the 1970’s NASCAR rule book is because of me”, a great way to remember one of the best cheats in the business.