The Greatest Cheats in Racing History

Pretty much anywhere that there is a competitive environment, there’s going to be somebody who at least has the thought of cheating in their mind. Now, if you get caught cheating in the vast majority of sporting events, it’s something that’s looked down upon. However, there is this odd phenomenon that occurs in the racing community where that might just not be the case. Instead, in racing, cheating is actually praised in certain situations, depending on exactly how creative the act of cheating is. Should a team “race the rulebook” in such a way that others would’ve never considered, the community won’t be mad but instead applaud the effort.

In a sport like NASCAR, this mindset is relatively common. Even though NASCAR officials will do everything that they can in order to stop teams from cheating, competitors are commonly exposed and held liable for their efforts. However, after a penalty which is usually akin to a slap on the wrist, teams are put back in the pool of drivers and left to their devices again to try and stretch out the rulebook.

In other words, if you head out on the racing surface and end up being too dominant for too long of a period of time, you can bet your bottom dollar that NASCAR is going to dig into your operation to see what exactly it is that they can find.

Below, we ride along with VINwiki as they put together a video that tells a little bit about the history of cheating in racing. Even though some of these drivers crossed the lines of the rulebook, we have to admit the creativity involved here is simply superb. Did some of these teams really push the limits and get caught? Sure. However, it’s hard not to admire the engineering mindset that was invested in bringing some of these schemes to life.