The Front Row with Jerry Hitchcock September 24, 2013

It's been coming for a long time.

Sure, cheating is sports is nothing new, what with black eyes in baseball, football, cycling and track and field commonplace in recent years.

But the practice of on-track cheating in NASCAR surely has lost almost every bit of steam it had gathered with NAPA's decision last week to terminate its sponsorship of Michael Waltrip Racing team driver Martin Truex Jr.

MWR had been penalized by NASCAR for manipulating the Sept. 7 race in Richmond, when Truex's teammate Clint Bowyer spun his car on the track to ensure that Truex would hold his position and be ensured a spot in the sport's 'Chase for the Championship.'

As of this writing, 5 Hour Energy, Bowyer's sponsor, was still 'evaluating' its relationship with MWR. Bowyer had previously qualified for the Chase.

Sure, hundreds of thousands in fines, loss of hundreds of driver points, drivers put on double-secret probation by NASCAR and suspensions of crew chiefs may have hurt MWR, but the loss of over $15 million in NAPA sponsorship money may prove hard to survive for the organization. Suddenly the team's wallet is looking and feeling extremely thin.

And you can bet all the other Sprint Cup teams have taken note. After decades living with the mantra 'It ain't cheatin' if you don't get caught,' there's a new phrase in town: Embarrass your sponsor, and you'll soon be without one.

But hey, you say, can't MWR just go out and find another sponsor? In theory, yes, but large companies with the financial wherewithal to write annual checks of over $10 million annually for stock car sponsorship are few and very far between. NAPA had been with Michael Waltrip since his driving days with Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI). He won two Daytona 500s with NAPA emblazoned across the hood of his car and they backed him when he started his own team and even after he jumped out of the car to put Truex behind the wheel. But MWR's actions at Richmond forced NAPA to take a hard look at their involvement with a team capable of shady dealings, and decided it was no deal for them anymore.

I remember watching the race a couple of weeks ago, and wondering if the moves on the track were somehow choreographed. Sure enough, and with the help of team radio evidence, the cat was out of the bag.

NASCAR removed the drivers who benefited from team actions from the Chase, and inserted those that, barring those actions, would have qualified on their own.

In baseball or cycling, you cheat with performance enhancing drugs, you're done - for at least a year. Your good name sullied, possibly for eternity. Ask Manny Ramirez or Lance Armstrong how that's working out for them these days.

But until now, stock car racing was notorious for the bending of rules and a concentration of work in the 'gray area' of the rule book, especially mechanical and/or aerodynamically. The buzz was almost every team was guilty of some infraction, whether NASCAR actually caught them in the act or not. With the pressure to win (or at least run up front) overwhelming, teams have become as competitive in rule book twisting as they have been going door-to-door on the track.

NASCAR has finally said enough, at least as far as on-track driver actions are concerned. They announced that they will not allow any driver to 'artificially alter' the outcome of a race. So, in theory, from here on out, what you see on the track should be legitimate.

And the coddling of sponsors, on and off the track, might even be more sobering.

Jerry Hitchcock is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2017, via email at jhitchcock@cdapress.com, or follow him on Twitter at HitchTheWriter