Back in those days, if you weren't cheating, you weren't winning very many races, if any. Besides, it was this "cheating" that brought all innovation not only to auto racing, but to factory cars as well. For example, the late great Smokey Yunick, owned at least 9 patents, and was directly responsible for a multitude of MANY innovations for SEVERAL US auto

makers that are still incorporated in most of the cars sold in America today, that involved safety and performance. But of course Smokey never got the "public" credit for it, as he was working under contract for all of the manufacturers at one time or another, so the auto makers themselves claimed the credit. Smokey Yunick was a man ahead of his time. He almost

single-handedly FORCED NASCAR to make rules. They eventually wrote so many rules in fact, that Smokey threw in the towel & retired from building race cars for NASCAR. But he continued to innovate, as I mentioned above.