A savvy racetrack promoter long ago told me that if you really wanted to see stock car racing draw crowds, all you had to do was put in pari-mutuel windows and stand back.

Suddenly, something like that seems possible. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that states may pass laws allowing sports betting, striking down a federal law banning sports betting except in Nevada.

Forbes magazine tells us New Jersey, West Virginia and Pennsylvania are virtual locks to allow sports gambling, and New York and Massachusetts are good bets to follow.

For NASCAR fans, it is also worth noting that besides a track in Las Vegas, the sport’s premier tour includes speedways in Kansas and Delaware that have casinos attached.
And what about Virginia? No casinos currently in the commonwealth, but there is serious talk that one could be built — if not on Richmond Raceway’s own acreage, then perhaps in next-door New Kent County.
In any case, if the General Assembly decides to allow sports gambling, the door would be open to bets on auto racing.
For Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing, the betting could cover race results and stage finishes, complete with exactas, trifectas and the like.

All sorts of wagering permutations present themselves — for example, over-under bets on the number of cautions, laps run under caution, laps various drivers would lead, pole-position speed, and so on.

Here’s the question: What impact would legal, well-organized gambling have on the sport’s popularity? We already have lots of illegal, perhaps not-so-well organized gambling on the sport.

Still, legal gambling might encourage more people to watch the sport — in person or on television — so they could see how their wagers worked out. But here’s a caution: With gambling, NASCAR would inherit a new level of conspiracy theory.

Every caution called for debris would be questioned — likewise every errant hot dog wrapper that didn’t bring out such a caution.

Every departure from normal procedure would be under scrutiny. For example, NASCAR runs all its races in stages now, with caution periods at the end of a stage giving teams an opportunity to pit for tires, fuel and adjustments.
Ordinarily the pits stay closed for a couple of caution laps while TV cuts to commercials. That way, viewers don’t miss the frantic pit stop action that sometimes decides a race. But in a recent race, NASCAR opened the pits immediately — no delay for commercials.

The reason? Several drivers were about to run out of gas. Running around under caution might have left many of them stalled on the track, requiring track crew trucks to push the race cars to the pits for refueling.

That’s all well and good for competition purposes. It’s no fun having teams fall out of contention because their fuel tanks run dry just waiting for a commercial to finish. But what if you bet on a driver who has raced wisely and has enough fuel to complete the usual caution laps? You don’t want NASCAR departing from standard procedure. You want everybody but your driver to run out of fuel. Tough luck for them.

What about teammates helping each other out? Let’s say Kevin Harvick is leading in his Ford and Kyle Larson, in a Chevrolet, is catching him in the closing laps. Then Harvick teammate Clint Bowyer — laps behind because of an earlier problem but still on the track — makes it extremely difficult for Larson to get by him. If you’ve bet on Larson, you cry foul.

Bowyer, you may recall, was the driver whose suspicious late-race spinout brought out a critical caution flag in a 2013 race at Richmond Raceway. That spinout — along with other drivers either obviously slowing or making a questionable pit stop — changed the outcome of the race and altered the Cup playoff lineup. NASCAR intervened, adding and removing drivers from the playoffs.

Gambling interests in that race would have intensified the scandal exponentially. Lawsuits may have come down in a blizzard.
Longtime observers will recall a Sept. 1974 race in Dover, Del., when Richard Petty needed a late-race caution to erase a 33-second deficit and have a chance to pass Benny Parsons and Dick Brooks, who were running one-two.

Buddy Arrington, whose low-budget team bought parts from the powerhouse Petty organization, slowed on the backstretch and parked on the Turn 3 apron. However, because the Dover infield is raised and RVs were parked near the turn, race officials couldn’t see Arrington’s car — so there was no caution.

After sitting still for a couple of laps, Arrington got his Plymouth running again, pulled into the pits for brief service, rejoined the race and promptly parked in Turn 3 again — this time near the outside guardrail where he couldn’t be missed.
The caution flag flew. Petty caught up with the leaders. When the green flag waved again, Petty drove his Dodge to the win. Brooks finished second in a Ford owned by Richmond’s Junie Donlavey. Parsons finished third in his Chevy.
Arrington denied his two on-track stops were aimed at aiding Petty. He said he’d had a steering problem.

Take either the Bowyer mystery spin at Richmond or the Arrington double trouble at Dover. Imagine the fallout if millions of betting dollars hung in the balance.

Gambling may spark new interest in stock car racing, but if there’s cheating, or the appearance of cheating, all bets are off.

Randy Hallman, a veteran NASCAR writer, is retired from the Richmond Times-Dispatch. His column appears weekly in the NASCAR Report. Email him at fullthrottlerh@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @RandyLHallman.

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