My sincere thanks go to the many American readers who responded to the piece about Michael Waltrip Racing's recent difficulty.

The more information that comes to light about this case, the more confused I become. Let us begin by examining the known facts. There were several Toyota Camrys entered in the Daytona 500 and only that of Michael Waltrip was thrown out. A performance enhancing adhesive gel was found coated on the inside of the inlet manifold.

The NASCAR authorities have said they will not release the identity of the additive, but I hear that it may well be an alcohol based gel made by a company called Sterno. Sterno gel has been made for more than 100 years and is used by both the food industry and in camping stoves. It is odourless, heats to a constant, high, temperature, and packs a lot of energy.

Coating the inside of a manifold with such a gel works on the same principle as one of those scented blocks you hang on the side of your lavatory bowl. Every time you flush the cistern, water runs over the block and takes some the fragrance with it. An alcohol based gel would be completely used over the course of a race and there would be nothing for scrutineers to find.

I wrote that Waltrip's fine of US$100,000 was unprecedented but, in 2000, Jeremy Mayfield copped a fine of $152,000 for tampering with fuel. Points are thrown around in NASCAR, which has 36 races in a season, so a deduction of 100 points, I am told, would be the rough equivalent of losing six points for a third place in a Grand Prix.

Those are the known facts. Guess which NASCAR driver said the following in 1976: 'If you don't cheat, you look like an idiot; if you cheat and don't get caught, you look like a hero; if you cheat and get caught, you look like a dope.

That was Darrell Waltrip, winner of 85 NASCAR races and three titles. Darrell is a commentator on TV for Fox and is Michael's older brother. Something said by someone else more than thirty years ago, though bandied about in the present case, is not evidence.

Apparently, the story made national news on all the major American TV channels whereas infringements in NASCAR would normally only rate regional news. My guess that the story made the national news because of Toyota. The background to the media interest is that the American car industry is in decline, shedding jobs and closing plants, while Toyota has just opened another new factory as is poised to become World Number One.

Waltrip's crew chief, David Hyder, who has been suspended by NASCAR, denies all knowledge of the additive. Apparently the team has offered him immunity if he shares what he knows and the sack if he doesn't; a rock and a hard place. He maintains his innocence and is currently barred from even entering the team's workshop.

Cheating is endemic in NASCAR, Waltrip's was not the only car found to infringe the rules at Daytona, but was the only one to make national news. If the team is granting Hyder immunity on the one hand, and the sack on the other, and he still protests his innocence, my hunch is to believe him.

Nobody in NASCAR has ever ceased to be a hero simply because they have been found cheating. Smokey Yanack once ran a car built to 7/8th scale, that is cheating writ large.

If you or I were in David Hyder's position, and we knew something, and all we had to do was to come clean and keep our job, most of us would come clean. If we didn't know, they could apply the thumb screws and we still wouldn't know.