Why didn’t Manion get Cup suspension for Modified cheating?

July 21, 2011 3 Comments »

Why should Kevin "Bono" Manion be allowed to play in NASCAR's regional series without facing any real consequences for a penalty? Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

Mets shortstop Jose Reyes just returned to the lineup after a one-game rehab stint with Class A Brooklyn.

Let’s say Reyes had failed a drug test during his day back in the minors, and Major League Baseball suspended him from all minor league competition for the rest of the year.

Would justice have been served?

No. And justice isn’t served by Bono Manion getting to go back to his cushy Sprint Cup crew chief gig after ruining last Saturday’s Modified race in New Hampshire.

NASCAR now says Manion can’t go back to any of the regional series this year after bringing a car so souped up it would make Bandit Darville blush, leading to a disqualification.

In other words, they did nothing to him. (In fact, maybe they did him a favor. He shouldn’t be playing with his toys while his Cup driver, Jamie McMurray, continues to drown during a pitiful season.)

Some may say that Manion did nothing more than inconvenience a bunch of hobbyists who make their living in other pursuits. In fact, before 2007 I might have seen that point.

But that’s when I started covering Long Island’s Donny Lia, who was trying to win a Modified title with the Bob Garbarino-owned Mystic Missile. Lia ended up getting that championship for Garbarino, who had been searching for it for more than 40 years. Think about that. Garbarino spent more than four decades putting his own cash into a team that he knew would never recoup his investment. You think for all that sacrifice he would at least have the satisfaction of knowing he was competing on an equal playing field.

After Lia won that title for Garbarino, he was fittingly rewarded with a Truck Series win in Mansfield, Ohio, the following year, quite possibly the biggest Cinderella win in NASCAR’s top three series in the last 20 years. When Lia’s Truck Series opportunity dried up, he merely went back to Garbarino and won a second Modified title.

I was in Lia’s office when he said that at one point he thought about nothing but how to get to the Sprint Cup Series. But then he found perspective, and with that, success.

To think that a story like Lia and Garbarino’s could be imploded by someone lucky enough to actually make a good living at this gig, yet is so greedy for success he cheats against the weekend warriors of motorsports, is just plain sickening.

We talk all the time about NASCAR honoring its roots. The sport tried by pushing Modified ace Richie’s Evans’ entry into the NASCAR Hall of Fame this year.

Suspending Manion from all of NASCAR for six weeks would be a much more appropriate gesture.

  • mr clause

    Do you think it came across as you just not liking Bono? Did you not read the statement put out by the head of EGR, that it was their mistake? You want your readers to actually believe that Bono is the only modified that hedges on the rulebook? Let me think, Ryan ran away from all the competition? Wasn’t it more like there were 3 maybe 4 cars that were up front with him? Are you trying to make your readers believe that none of your top teams has a big budget?

    Maybe it’s just that Bono and Ryan are just that good and that’s hard for you to swallow. Maybe you all should just be happy that this team isn’t full time. Try being objective and not inject your favoritism. This is certainly not the first issue of cheating in the northeast modified division and won’t be the last. Much more sickening is a self named reporter writing with such bias and vitriol. This is more of a National Tattler story and the intent is the same. I’m curious, what would you call Bono’s team if not a part time weekend warrior effort?

  • Bob Stafford

    I agree with everything mr clause said, you are a DISGRACE to real and true motorsports journalist. Go cover the Girl Scouts because you are no true car guy!!!!!!!!!

  • http://jayski.com Jim

    On a different yet related note, this comes to mind. Dale Jr. was penalized for a pit road tire infraction last Sunday. All I could see was, Left rear tire carrier fumbled the tire and the tire fell over, barely crossing the pit line. The carrier, all in one motion, picked the tire right back up and continued with the pit stop. The NASCAR official pointed down at the tire as it happened, and am assuming this is where the penalty occurred, because TV coverage never explained the penalty as far as I know. That was not much of an infraction, in my eyes.

    Yet, just a few weeks ago, and I don’t remember which race, Greg Biffle was in for a pit stop, and one of his left side tires rolled away totally out of control. The NASCAR official working Greg’s box caught the tire as it was rolling into the next pit box behind Biffles. He stopped it, and kind of pushed it back into the pit box. NO PENALTY. This was seen on live TV, plain as day, and nothing was done about it, let alone even mentioned by the talking heads.

    This kind of inconsistency in NASCAR officiating is why people relate it to the WWE and make other insinuations regarding officials and NASCAR penalties.

    And don’t get me started on these silly secret fines. What a crock of baloney that is.