Throughout the course of Speedweeks at Daytona, from Sunday qualifying through the Thursday duels that helped to set the field for this Sunday's Daytona 500, the final car count was six teams - six prominent teams - busted for various violations.
First, all three teams owned by Ray Evernham - Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs - felt NASCAR's inspection wrath, the "room of doom," as I've seen in accounts.
Then Matt Kenseth suffered the same fate. Kahne and Kenseth were docked 50 points and their crew chiefs were sent home for four weeks, Sadler and Riggs were docked 25 and their crew chiefs were booted out for two.
The coup de gras involved Michael Waltrip, the face of Toyota's entrance into Nextel Cup. His car was impounded, he was docked 100 points, but he still ran in Thursday's 150-mile qualifier and grabbed one of the two available transfer spots.
From being so upset about the penalty that he didn't want to run, Waltrip made the best of the situation.
But following the second of the qualifying races, there was more. Jeff Gordon's car failed inspection. No penalties were assessed, as NASCAR VP of competition Robin Pemberton said "we're sure this wasn't intentional."
Regardless of intent or not, there's a common thread here. ALL of these drivers, with the exception of Waltrip, were not in danger of missing getting in to the Daytona 500.
Why cheat? Why even bother to gain an advantage in qualifying when your position in the field is assured?
After all, it's Daytona. The cars have restrictor plates, which means once they get in the draft, 10 positions or more can be gained within a minimal number of laps.
Look at James Hylton as an example. He had a realistic shot at getting into the 500 with seven laps left, but he fell out of the draft on the restart and fell back faster than a lead balloon.
And he didn't cheat.
NASCAR is an awesome sport to watch. It's an ugly sport when cheaters try to prosper at the expense of those who play within the rules.