MEMO TO NASCAR --- DROP MICHAEL WALTRIP NOW!

As of today, three full days before the Daytona 500, the first and most important race in NASCAR’s schedule, the credibility of the sport and so many of its teams, owners, cars, crew chiefs and drivers is in serious question. For the first time in its history, NASCAR has docked teams money and points before the season has begun. Some teams got hit hard for making patently illegal aerodynamic changes on their cars; four cars were found guilty of this offense earlier this week. But the biggest news came Wednesday and today, Thursday. Both Jeff Gordon and Michael Waltrip were hit with penalties … and the credibility of the sport continues to drain, drop by drop … And the company hit worst by it all is

Toyota

. Before they have run even one mile in actual racing in Nextel Cup, the giant Japanese company finds itself scrambling to manage this disaster.

Jeff Gordon’s #24 “Rainbow Warrior” Chevy was found to have illegal rear suspension components. The team said it was because they installed some of the suspension parts incorrectly. NASCAR seems to buy some of the team’s excuses, but Gordon will start in last place, relegated to the 43^rd position, for Sunday’s “Great American Race”.

But it was Michael Waltrip, ne’r-do-well younger brother of FOX on-air analyst and former Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip, who received the biggest fine ever levied in NASCAR ($100,000 and 100 points against the team and its members), which almost guarantees the team’s cars having no shot whatsoever at the Nextel Cup title at the end of the year. And this before the season has even officially begun, as far as most fans are concerned.

Why was Waltrip assessed so strong a penalty? Because it seems a fuel additive the team had been using in their Toyota Camrys was similar molecularly to a substance resembling --- rocket fuel. That’s right, rocket fuel. Tampering with the fuel itself is considered one of the worst actions anyone on a race team can take. Fuel in all major series are inspected, tested, inspected, tested again … Throughout the entire racing weekend.

What does this mean for Waltrip? His tearful protestations and apologies aside (and what else would you expect?), my guess is that

Toyota

might drop him altogether, for at least a year. My recommendation is that they definitely should do exactly that. How else do they regain their credibility within the sport? With one team out of just three running Camrys now essentially convicted and sentenced, what ‘shoe’ may drop next?

The company has invested many millions of dollars (and whatever that  works out to in Yen) into Waltrip’s all-new team, and even more into his older brother’s Sears Craftsman Truck Series team. The

Toyota

advertising budget alone featuring both Waltrips has to be in the hundreds of millions. (Photo - Darrell Waltrip signs autograph at Tundra plant opening in TX).

With the season opening and all this chicanery revealed very publicly by NASCAR and several teams hit hard by sanctions,

Toyota

seems to have gotten the worst of it as far as public opinion is concerned. Many NASCAR fans are not thrilled with the first ‘foreign’ entry in NASCAR to begin with (though other import cars, including Nissans/Datsuns, have run in many local NASCAR series over the years), and adding this level of rule-breaking is something the world’s second-largest automaker  certainly does not need.

The other teams can straighten up and fly right, as can

Toyota

, but it seems to me that there will be suspicion over the car-maker for at least this entire season, all thanks to Michael Waltrip.