Case Study 4: Cheating and NASCAR: Who’s at the Wheel?
ACC 571: Forensic Accounting
May 29, 2012

My first thought when I hear NASCAR, is cars, fans and a whole lot of noise. Who knew that it is one of the top selling sports in the USA. According to the article “10 Interesting NASCAR facts”, There are over 75 million NASCAR fans in the United States and over 6 million attended races in 2010. NASCAR has grown increasingly in its popularity and is now the second largest grossing sport.
NASCAR founder William France “Bill” France Sr. founded the sport in 1948. Bill was a mechanic and auto shop owner from Washington, DC. He moved to Daytona Florida in the 1930’s. At the time, Daytona was a great spot for racing enthusiasts. William got involved in racing cars and promoting events. He soon realized that, at different races, rules would vary, and certain promoters were dishonest and would steal money from the contestants. William France Sr. felt the need for a governing body to sanction events. He chose members of the community, discussed this with them. This idea gave birth to NASCAR. . (www.History.com)
Analyze the motivational factors that promote cheating at NASCAR.

In the article “Is it Easy to Cheat in NASCAR?”, since stock car racing is such a big business, sponsors do not like to hear of any bad publicity when it comes to their particular team(s). Neither do the teams want to lose their sponsorship. When the sport tried to change the culture of NASCAR by giving stiffer penalties, this really made things a little worse. Now a days, you have teams that are being labeled as cheaters in the media on a consistent basis, although they stand firm on the fact that they did absolutely nothing wrong. In an effort to try to clean up the image of NASCAR by cracking down on participants, they probably made things more difficult.
With all of the new specifications and guidelines that have to be followed by racers and their crew members, crew chiefs find it pretty limiting when they try to look for ways to enhance their cars. So, they often try to find a loophole. But, when they do this, NASCAR officials will quickly label them as a “cheat”. The point that crew chiefs are trying to make is that if it is just a minor modification that needs to be make, why does NASCAR have such a hard time with accepting that?
These days, NASCAR is handing out some pretty hefty penalties. Past fines have been as large as $100,000. With some suspensions spanning over months. The bad thing though, is that some teams are getting points taken away from them. Teams have lost as many as 150 points. Which means that they ended up in sixth place. The more points that are taken away, the lower a team will end up in the rankings.
Cars have to get more detailed inspections several times during every race. All stock cars are checked before they even practice to qualify. These same cars will be checked before qualifying if they win the pole. The winner of the race, along with five other randomly selected contenders, will be evaluated during the post race inspection process. Currently, NASCAR has techniques to determine who the cheaters are. The inspectors for this sport verify all the dimensions including frame of the car, test car engine and mark parts in order to ensure a level playing field for all the participants at every race. Cheating doesn’t just stop at a couple of teams wanting to get one over on the officials. Almost all contenders have now come up with their own for of getting around the system.
The stress to reach the goals that sponsors set for you is another reason that employees evade the rules and policies that the NASCAR establishment has set forth. Members from dissimilar organizations are normally trained on unlawful behaviors as part of their standard duties and influence. This practice sometimes sends the imaginations of NASCAR drivers down the wrong path.
Discuss three (3) aspects of the organizational culture at NASCAR that contribute to unethical behavior.
The control that NASCAR has over these stock car races is subject to misuse because of the self-sufficiency they enjoy by influencing an unparalleled judgment, levies penalties and occasionally, only accounting for one side of the situation, revoking penalties already levied on an affiliate. The culture of impunity by the NASCAR executives deems all the efforts being put to reduce this prehistoric habit by the participants. The organizations top directors and owners support ethical practices by example. In peeling the investment they have in the worldwide speedway corporations. These firms will go the distance to prove that all race track owners have an equal right to host the Nextel cup races. Bill France and family have an undue advantage over other tack owners because of the synergistic relationship between NASCAR and ISC ~ International Speedway Corporation (owns and manages thirteen of the best auto racing tracks used in the Nextel cup races). This cross tenure allows each organization to uphold a tone of unprincipled and enthusiast competition. .
Justify your position about why you agree or disagree that “rules can’t brake cheating” at NASCAR.
A variety of participants only act in accordance with the regulations of NASCAR, however they take advantage of several, that are not allowed. Innumerable efforts by NASCAR to inflict stringent compliance to their blurry rules and regulation have been futile. Drivers and mechanics are always searching for opportunities to boost the velocity and effectiveness of cars devoid of being caught. This culture has been in a way of life for a very long time and does not show any indication of stopping in the near future.
Stock car owners, drivers, crew chiefs and teams jointly known as the garage people implemented shared benchmarks that relax the interpretation of rules. In existence, there is a set of unwritten standards of behavior they developed and they enforce. An arrangement is in place that no member of a group can interfere with the rules commonly known as “The Big Three”. These rules include: tires, fuel or engine displacement. Members of the garage community consent that everything outside the big three as available to be challenged. The benchmark created by the garage people goes against NASCAR rules. This justifies why NASCAR has such a long way to go before they totally eliminate cheating during races.
Discrepancies in decision making and procedural justice in races in a main reason why NASCAR rules cannot be used to determine the real winner of any race. With the lack of assessing standards, any effort on cheating by the participants greatly diminishes the moral of the sport. Procedural justice legal process stresses that all violations be penalized in the same manner with no consideration of the intentions of the participants. The sport of NASCAR is not for adhering to the principles when making judgments. Privileged treatment has been reported in assigning penalties
Devise methods to address the cheating problem at NASCAR.
Making and enforcing an organizational code of conduct, based on a corporate model that can impart an ethical thinking and behavior. Car owners and race team’s opinions should be taken into consideration while developing a code of conduct. Individual training should be giving to instill the spirit and the code of conduct. Encouraging owners and superior level managers to widen leadership styles starts at the top. Owners must first confirm their behavior represents noble virtues of honesty, integrity and self reverence. Rules are always the first step towards solving a problem. Irregularity and impartiality in this sport will be addressed by changing of rules. By simplifying the rules, innovation will be greatly enhanced and structural changes to procedural fairness which has always been a well kept secret. Action towards the creation of an ethical community by the NASCAR executives is a step in the right direction in eradicating cheating and unethical behaviors. Devising a code of conduct, programs of consistently employed rules and programmatic fair play, reinvigorated approach to creativeness, prospects of significant increase in devoted fan base and sponsors integration in assenting to these adjustments.

Works Cited

Kranacher, MJ., Riley,R., & Wells,J. (2011). Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

http://spease.hubpages.com/hub/10-Interesting-NASCAR-facts

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nascar-founded

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/nascar/nascar-basics/easy-to-cheat-nascar2.htm

http://articles.cnn.com/2007-02-16/us/nascar.cheating_1_truck-races-brian-france-cheating-scandal?_s=PM:US