Checkered allegations

Apparently there are enough sour grapes in garages around NASCAR to make vats of some pretty nasty tasting wine.

Rumblings that Carl Edwards' Roush Fenway team created an advantage in last week's victory at Las Vegas by enabling the car's oil tank lid to come loose were growing just days before this weekend's event in Atlanta.

While experts agree that without the lid there would be significant additional downforce on Edward's car that could only have enhanced his ability to take the checkered flag, to say it was deliberate act of cheating is a weighty allegation that thus far is nothing but conjecture.

NASCAR post-race inspections are rigorous, so the chances the missing lid would have been overlooked are roughly nil. When it was indeed discovered missing, Edwards was docked a severe 100 championship points, dropping him from first to seventh in the Sprint Cup standings. Edwards also lost the 10 bonus points he would have received should he be one of the 12 drivers to qualify for the 10-race playoff.

Additionally, crew chief Bob Osborne was fined $100,000 and suspended for the next six races and team owner Jack Roush was penalized 100 owner's points.

Roush contends the lid was on tight at the start of the race and shook loose due to the vibrations during the race. Is this not plausible? This is after all coming from the head of one of the elite and most-respected organizations in all of racing, not some struggling, fly-by-night outfit.

Edwards is one of NASCAR's emerging superstars, just a week earlier he won the grueling two-day, 500-mile race in California. Losing the points and his crew chief for six weeks has no doubt put his team behind the eight-ball in its pursuit of the championship, a potentially devastating development in the wake of their early season start.

A punishment was certainly in order, but did the penalty fit the crime? Was there even a crime to begin with?