Does the same apply to Sportsman racing?
Dives are relatively common in Sportsman racing - father/son, brother/brother, teammates, husband/wife, you name it, I've seen it: -.500 red lights, .500 lights, no-shows, drive-throughs, bogus dial-ins (either ridiculously quick or ridiculously slow). Whether it's "he/she has a shot at a championship" or "I've got my Wally, it's your turn," or "I sold you that engine, go ahead and win," or "I loaned you that engine, you better not beat me," or "it's my team, I pay the bills," it's a fact of life and usually not disguised.
Used to be when a David Nickens customer was in contention for the Comp championship, the pits would be full of Nickens cars (customers and family) "blocking" for the potential champ. And, strangely, none of them ever lost to the potential champion.
I know, those same matchups are also often the most fiercely contested battles, for bragging rights. Depends on the situation and whether the win means a lot more to one of the two drivers than the other.
For that matter, splitting the winner/runner-up purse is also a common Sportsman practice, especially at the big-money races. Sportsman racing may not be "about the money" at that level, but when the final round pays a lot more for the win than the runner-up, it is. Sometimes the split goes back another round, the semifinalists agreeing to a three- or four-way split so everybody makes money. Then the final round is all about who gets the trophy and the picture, the money has already been allocated.
Bottom line - you can mandate "no obvious dives," but you can't make a "no dives" rule stick because you can't enforce it unless the two drivers are up front about one of them taking a dive.
It's always been a "problem" this time of year, but the current championship format accentuates the value of a single round win and makes every unevenly contested matchup suspect if it involves one of the shrinking list of championship contenders. It may be dramatic, but the manufactured pressure also ups the ante on questionable tactics.
Even if every pair from here to the final round at Pomona is absolutely, fairly contested, as fiercely as possible by both drivers, somebody will always be ready to wink and give the knowing nod if two drivers with a real or perceived relationship meet and the driver with the most to gain gets the win light.
Conspiracy theories? We don't need no stinkin' conspiracy theories, we got Olympic diving going on here!
