DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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He rode around for 20 laps not knowing he was getting a penalty | Daily 7-2-2024
A controversial penalty during Pennsylvania Speedweek has folks talking today. We'll dive in, look at the video, and talk about what I don't like about this situation. Plus more on Outlaw drivers racing this week, Monday late model racing and more. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, July 2nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
We'll start first with the clear hot topic of the day and that's the start and subsequent penalty last night during Pennsylvania Speedweek action at Lincoln Speedway. If you haven't seen it, I'll show you the video here in a bit, but Kody Hartlaub in the Trone 39 and Matt Campbell in the X led the field to green last night, with Devon Borden and Chad Trout on row two. Hartlaub didn't get the cleanest of getaways and Borden jumped to his inside down the front straightaway, and for at least part of the lap was in the lead. Hartlaub ended up leading a few laps though before Borden finally got by on lap four. The race then went green for a long time, and nobody watching at the track or at home knew anything was wrong. Borden was under pressure from Macri for the top spot closing in on ten laps to go when a caution was thrown for Cameron Smith going for a spin. Under that yellow flag, it was then revealed that Borden was getting penalized two spots for jumping the start, giving the lead to Macri, and putting Borden behind Hartlaub for the restart. Once green again, it took Borden a few laps to get by Hartlaub and in the mean time, Macri was able to put a bit of distance on everyone and then get away for the win. Borden settled for second with Hartlaub third. Afterwards in victory lane, Borden was very diplomatic about the whole thing, but he did later tell Jeremy Elliott that it was quote "absolute bullshit." So the issue here for Borden wasn't actually that he jumped the start, as in got a head start on everyone early, which is normally what guys get called for in these cases. It was that he wasn't in line with the leader when they crossed the start line. The Lincoln Speedway rulebook says quote "All cars must be nose to tail within the tracks of the car in front of them until the leaders reach the starting line. Those not in line or passing before the green flag is displayed will be penalized a minimum of two (2) positions." And from before the chalk line in turn four, which is what I'm assuming they are calling the start line, all the way to the flagstand and beyond, Borden was a lane lower than Hartlaub on the track. The 39 did have that wonky start, and it's hard to blame Borden for trying to avoid him in that instance. I grabbed some footage from FloRacing of the start and I've slowed it down here so we can take a look. Lincoln Speedway's Jerry Parrish told Jeremy that they had three different officials review it, and they all made the same call. Jumped starts are always a judgement thing anyway, and this part of the situation can be debated endlessly. I personally don't feel like there is anything super egregious there from Borden, although I get the intrepretation of the rule. But the penalty call itself isn't what I have a problem with. It's the fact that they waited 20 laps to actually issue the penalty. If the start was bad, throw the yellow, dock Borden a row, and restart the race. You'd have some grumbling, especially from the team, but everyone would move on very quickly. The procedure in this case is for the penalty to either be issued at the next available caution, or at the checkered flag. It was bad enough that it happened 20 laps later, but could you imagine them potentially taking that win from Borden after the race, especially when he has no idea what's coming. That is just not the way to handle this. I don't know what it is about Central PA and starts and restarts, but this is the second time this season we've had signficant controversy over a penalized start. Remember back to March when Danny Dietrich was involved in a situation during the opener at Williams Grove. Hopefully this will indeed be looked at by track officials in the area and that penalty procedure adjusted. My favorite weird side bar to this story was the people who were trying to blame the virtual flagman situation at Lincoln for this controversy. Like saying if there was a real flag man in the stands, this would have never happened. Those folks clearly not understanding that calls for jumped starts come from the tower, and have for a very long time. I appreciate the effort though, especially when it looked like they'd forgotten about the whole thing in the first place. The win for Macri has vaulted him into second in the speedweek championship, but he's still 87 points behind Dietrich, who finished seventh last night. PA Speedweek shifts to Grandview Speedway tonight for round number four. And quickly back to the extra drivers in the field, as we talked yesterday about the relaxed restrictions from the World of Outlaws this week. Logan Schuchart did race last night, he ended up fourth. He will likely continue racing the next several nights. Brock Zearfoss confirmed he will race at Port Royal, Williams Grove and Selinsgrove joining Schuchart. And we know that Gio Scelzi is confirmed to run Knoxville on Saturday with KCP. David Gravel will not race at all this week, and I haven't heard of confirmed plans for anyone else at this moment. We'll see if any other drivers decide to do some racing.
In Minnesota last night, XR kicked off a three race week with Bobby Pierce scoring $15,000 at Proctor Speedway. Devin Moran and Mike Marlar also on the podium. Pierce had to earn the win, battling Moran through lap traffic for a lot of that feature. The 26 car field also included Ryan Gustin, Nick Hoffman, Brandon Sheppard, Ricky Thornton Jr., Dennis Erb Jr., Tyler Erb, Billy Moyer, and Max McLaughlin. XR's busy week continues tonight at Gondik Law with another $15,000 on the line, and you can expect just about the same cast of characters tonight as you saw last night. They will then hit Ogilvie on Wednesday for $50,000 to win. Moran continues to lead the XR Super Series championship after four races. Tyler Erb is second, and RTJ third. Erb though won't hold that second place position as he doesn't plan on racing Gondik Law tonight. He will be back with XR on Wednesday though. It does look like his Summer Nationals run is over as well, at least for now. He doesn't have any more Hell Tour races on his schedule, and that will make way for Jason Feger to take the season long championship lead. Feger already with two of the week long championships. Summer Nationals week four begins tonight at Old No 1 Speedway in Arkansas, with Benton, Riverside, Paducah, Clarksville, and Haubstadt all to come this week as well.
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Alright, that's it for the Daily today. Find more cool dirt racing stuff at dirtrackr.com, and you can watch and listen to full episodes of the daily on YouTube, Facebook, and the major podcast platforms.
Hope you guys have a great Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!