Warped Wednesday: Are pedal cars the next step?

Welcome to Warped Wednesday. On this, we'll put out the rush to judgment mat, go a little too far and have a little fun. Will it be funny? Sometimes. Will it be crazy and largely unbelievable? Probably. Will not everyone get it? Definitely.

While the Sprint Cup Series garage's plans of fielding strictly stock cars for the rest of the season was squashed by the sanctioning body, there's a movement afoot to run pedal cars at this week's race at Richmond.

Just like teams were fearing penalties after what happened to the Penske teams at Texas, they're now in panic mode about Matt Kenseth's engine penalty. Teams are fearing they will now have to be incredibly precise with their measurement, something they haven't had to worry about in the past. One source said that there was a team in the field on Sunday that ran an engine that was a whopping 15 grams too light. Can you imagine the penalty they would have received after a further inspection?

So with a short track race coming up, pedal cars may be the order of the weekend. One team has already been scouting out thick soled shoes in the event that its driver has to drag his feet across the asphalt to come to a halt.

However, going to pedal cars may be a distinct advantage for some teams. Word is that Stewart-Haas Racing is already fighting the movement because despite their slow start the team knows Stewart will be more competitive in a regular car. He has no chance in a pedal car race against Jimmie Johnson or Carl Edwards.

It's the perfect time for this change to take place. Richmond is a short track and while the race is listed as the Toyota Owners 400, it's actually only 300 miles, and drivers will likely be coasting through the corners on many laps.

While NASCAR deterred stock cars at Kansas with seven-figure fines for each team that brought a strictly stock car to the track, the sanctioning body may be between a rock and a hard place on this issue. After all, pedal cars fit seamlessly into the NASCAR Green initiative, and the sport would be looked upon as a hypocrite just after Earth Day if it forced teams to use gasoline instead of human power.