David Hyder, one of two Michael Waltrip Racing employees suspended by NASCAR in a cheating scandal at Daytona in February, parted ways with the team on Friday. “As of this morning, Michael Waltrip Racing and David Hyder have ended their employment relationship,” Waltrip said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway.
Kennedy remains on the team payroll but is still suspended.
Asked how much he now knows about the illegal substance and how it was applied, Waltrip said, “Someone said the other day they believe the amount of people that could have done that would fit in the back seat of a car. So, why haven’t we heard? We’ve worked with NASCAR. We’ve done our own investigation and no one has taken responsibility for it and we can’t find a container of whatever that stuff was or is. So, we’ve been frustrated by it.” Full Story at Motor Sport News™
Ok, but that doesn’t seem to be as complete a statement as I’d expected from MWR when/if any firings came down, at least in terms of saying either “he’s guilty” or “he may not be guilty, but it’s time to part ways anyway because it’s obvious that we can’t fully utilize his talents if he can’t travel with the team” — something. I write this because, back in March, it didn’t appear that there would be a way to prove whether or not Hyder had truly had a hand in the violation. (Yeah, ok … we’re talking beyond a shadow of a doubt here, folks, grin.) Without that proof, the theory was that it would be difficult to fire him — at least contractually, though one would also think it a bit bad for morale for any team to be run on an assumption-of-guilt basis. Part of March’s update story:
Sources said after the Daytona incident that Hyder would be fired, but because there is no tangible proof he put the substance in the fuel system there are legal implications preventing that.
NASCAR series director John Darby said during the recent “Car of Tomorrow” test at Bristol there are no plans to reinstate Hyder or MWR competition director Bobby Kennedy until somebody steps forward to admit guilt.
Ty Norris [MWR] doesn’t expect that to happen. “This isn’t going to be a Perry Mason moment,” he said. “Someone is not just going to break down on the stand because the show is about the end and say, ‘Hey, I did it.’ We know we’re not going to have that moment. The only thing we can do is plead to get our hands on something substantive to investigate.”
Norris said pleas for NASCAR to hand over some of the evidence to help in MWR’s in-house investigation have fallen on deaf ears. NASCAR has had Waltrip’s car since the substance was discovered. “It’s more important to us to get closure to this than it is to them,” Norris said. “We can’t have closure if we don’t know what we’re looking for. I talked to a gentleman that has worked with fuel since the 1950s, and he’s never heard of a fuel or fuel additive that leaves a sticky, oily substance that creates the type of damage inside the engine that this stuff created.”
But Norris made it clear this isn’t a debate with NASCAR “It’s not even about reinstating people,” he said. “It’s about trying to understand what happened, how it happened, so we can determine who had access to it. “Right now, we’re just on the outside looking in on this investigation.” Link to March Story at ESPN.com
Considering how abrupt the announcement was (no ‘we certainly wish David Hyder all the best, as it’s such an unfortunate incident’ type of pr blather), how subtle Waltrip’s “backseat” statement was (pretty much sayin’ that only a couple/few people even could’ve done the deed, and crew chiefs are notoriously hands-on, especially before Daytona) — not to mention Norris’ concern just a month ago over not having enough evidence to work with in order to definitively prove who was and was not involved … oh, and of course the fact that I highly doubt Hyder was about to jump up and down singin’ “it was me, it was me!” at any point in our lifetimes … I guess I’m thinkin’ that MWR very recently found a cool CSI-type way to prove that his fingerprints were all over the container of go-fast-goo.
I suppose just few of the remaining questions, then, would be: What — was he pullin’ some ninja moves in the shop so that no one else could see what he was doing? Does anyone really think he’s the only one involved? If not, are they firing anyone else? Or, because Hyder was ultimately responsible as CC, is he just the lucky guy who gets to take the fall?
Whether or not anyone else is ever implicated or fired over this deal, Hyder’s most definitely taking one helluva’ fall. His entire career is lookin’ pretty screwed if NASCAR won’t lift his “indefinite” suspension … and they’re certainly not the forgiving type.
I’m sorry, but I probably would’ve fired him myself merely because I’d be damned mad that he 1) supposedly didn’t “know” what the hell happened/who was a part of what happened, and/or 2) wouldn’t tell me jack about what he did know. Still … an $100,000 fine and an “indefinite suspension” from the sport itself (which usually means forever in NASCAR) …
Should’ve this really been a career-ending violation?
Uh … no.
The violation itself … no.
How Hyder handled it later, if we’re to believe all of the reports about him stonewalling his own team after they were busted? Guess that would depend upon whether those reports are accurate. I wouldn’t want to work with someone I couldn’t trust to be straight with me, but that speaks more to personality and ethics, and those things should be sorted out by owners in terms of whether or not they choose to work with him in the future — not by NASCAR in terms of permanently locking someone out of the sport.
Goes back to that whole equity and consistency in penalties issue … entirely subjective with NASCAR/ISC.
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