Well, that's kind of a crackpot post in that ESPN forum. Too many random thoughts bouncing around in that person's head to make even a simple, coherent comment. But it does bring up a few topics I'd like to comment on. I'll try to be a little more comprehendible.
(1) What happened with the #55 was deserved. NASCAR has been escalating their penalty process for at least the past few years, especially at restrictor plate races. Everyone in the garage area knows officials are getting more and more serious about rules violations. Last year the #48 team got caught cheating and lost their crew chief for 4 races. I certainly would not call that a cover up. But the conspiracy theorists can't seem to control themselves when it comes to favoritism and penalties. Let 'em froth, I say. The writing has been on the wall for years.
(2) The COT clearly has nothing to do with what is happening this weekend or with the #55 or the #48 or whoever. This change was put in place the day after Dale Earnhardt was killed. It was inevitable even if no one knew what the end result would be. One thing about the COT is it will level the playing field for awhile until the teams can get a handle on the cars and change their tactics and race strategy accordingly. Then you'll see the top teams pull to the front again, just like they do now. 100% predictable - 0% conspiracy.
(3) I do agree that NASCAR has shown GM a certain amount of favoritism over the years. Ford was ascendant from the mid 80's to the late 90's with the T-Bird, Bill Elliott, Jack Roush, Mark Martin, etc. Ford spent a lot of $$ assisting teams with tech support, wind tunnel time, information access, etc. At one time in the early 90's about 2/3 of the field was Fords. They were a compelling choice for smaller, less well funded teams. Now the pendulum has swung to favor Chevy. This really started happening when Pontiac pulled out and people like Joe Gibbs Racing, Bill Davis Racing, Petty Enterprises, MB2, Bahari, AJ Foyt, etc. needed to change brands. Some went to Chevy, some to Dodge, others disappeared. A big determining factor is engine lease programs and tech/wind tunnel support. Right now Chevy offers a lot to their teams while Ford and Dodge focus their energies on fewer teams (Roush and Evernham, respectively). NASCAR wants a level playing field which is why they've accepted Toyota with open arms and wallets, and why the COT is what it is. I don't see Chevy getting much in the way of breaks but they do have the strongest teams right now and that's going to make it look like they're bending the rules in order to beat the other mfrs. I honestly don't think that's happening now but I do believe it has happened in the past (dovetailing onto Sprintman's point about GM influence). BTW, NASCAR approved a new engine design from GM today. Called the R07, it was designed for NASCAR competition and is not directly production based. Their last new engine, the SB2, was intro'd in 1998. Since then all the other brands have developed new race engines for NASCAR competition.
(4) All the NASCAR folks I talked to about the RCR wheel drilling issue told me they did not see a tangible advantage to what they did. It struck me as one of those rule-bending ideas that sound good in theory but don't really work on the track. Yeah, RCR got caught but did they really have an advantage?
As long as there is auto racing and rulebooks, there will be cheating and rules manipulation. Want to get rid of cheating? Toss out the rulebook and let em 'run whatcha brung'. Might not make for compelling TV or corporate marketing opportunities but it might make a few people happy for awhile.