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Outlaws bust Roth, McFadden for tires... Everything you need to know, including polygraph tests | Daily 4-28-2023
James McFadden and Roth Motorsports have been busted by the World of Outlaws for tire doping, and I've got everything you need to know about it. Let's go!
It's Friday, April 28th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Unless you live under a rock, I'm sure by now you know that yesterday the World of Outlaws levied a fairly hefty fine and suspension to James McFadden and the Roth Motorsports team after a failed tire test from Pevely. That race occurred on April 14th, Brad Sweet was the winner, and James McFadden finished second after starting 14th. The release says the normal stuff, that the tire didn't match or conform to the Hoosier tire benchmarks, and an additional analysis verified the primary findings. The team has been disqualified from that event and fined $8200. That includes the $6000 they received in finishing money, plus $2000 for the violation and $200 for the tire test. The team has also lost 500 driver and owner points, and everyone has been issued a four race suspension, including owner, driver and crew. As per usual, the fines and suspensions must be paid and served before a return to competition, and Roth Motorsports has filed an appeal to the decision. They will be allowed to race until the process has come to a conclusion. So you will see the Roth 83 this weekend at Tri-City and Haubstadt. As of this moment, that's the publicly available information and facts we have available. No response or release has been issued by Roth regarding the penalties.
As we look at this situation though, I did have quite a few conversations yesterday with various industry friends and I wanted to share what else I know and talk about a few things. First, right off the bat, the criticisms from people about the Outlaws enforcing their own rule book are laughable. This isn't 1978, it's not a free for all, the rules aren't applied differently for different drivers and teams, and I'm not interested in conspiracy theories. This series techs race cars just like every other series does, and some like to whine and complain that things aren't fair, but as soon as a penalty is announced, the series is ripped. You can't have it both ways. From what I've been told, the tech process this season has been stepped up, so it wouldn't have come as a surprise to the teams that samples were being taken. In the aftermath of the penalties being levied, I've heard from a few different sources that the Roth crew took lie detector tests and supposedly they passed those tests. I know that might sound strange, but there is actually a provision in the appeal process for polygraph tests, specifically when it comes to tire testing. The rule book says quote "The result of the polygraph tests will only be used as supporting documentation and do not alter the facts of the appeal. If the results are considered, they will be used to assist the commission members in the deliberation of the appropriateness of the penalty." So basically a passed polygraph test does not negate the failed tire test, and is used in conjuction with other evidence. As for the tire test itself, the results are supposedly fairly strong and I think the appeal could be difficult for Roth to win. Remember that ignorance or accidents don't usually go over well as a defense. Teams are held responsible for their race cars and the components even if they claim it wasn't their fault or they didn't do anything deliberately nefarious. If they can make a compelling argument though along with the polygraph results, the penalties might be reduced. If you are curious about the appeal process as a whole, it's spelled out clearly in the World of Outlaws rulebook over the course of like eight pages, including the list of the 17 independent commission members who will hear and act on these appeals. Usually a panel of three of those 17 will oversee an appeal. You can see all the verbiage in the rule book at dirtcarmembers.com. The appeals information is in section nine that starts on page 16.
I think it's also important to note here that this is a very different looking Roth team internally from the Aaron Reutzel penalty from a few years ago. I saw a lot of those comparisons being made, but this version has different crew members and a different driver. So yes Roth, but not all the same people inside the team. I also think it's a very strong possibility that James McFadden himself wouldn't have known anything outside of the rules was going on if this was indeed blatant cheating. A lot of hired drivers are not intimately involved in car setup, so I don't know that I would hold this against JMac. I also don't think that tire soaking or doping, or whatever you want to call it, is super prevalent in sprint car racing. I had people on both sides, meaning the series side and the team side, say that this was unexpected and not common in the pit area. I would tend to believe that.
I did want to also point out a few things about that specific night at Pevely. From what I know, tire samples were taken from the top three cars, meaning Brad Sweet's 49, James McFadden's 83, and Logan Schuchart's 1S. The other two samples came back clean. In that feature, McFadden started 14th, was ninth by half way, and then promoted to seventh with the issues for Donny Schatz and the dustup between David Gravel and Carson Macedo. McFadden really started moving forward inside ten to go, and he was really fast in the closing laps. If you go back and rewatch it, he was able to make up a lot of ground in three and four on the top, when most guys were glued to the inside wall. And not that this is a massive indictment of guilt, but the 83 was faster each of the last three laps when you compare lap times between he and Sweet. From my conversations yesterday, Pevely wouldn't normally be a track you'd want to prep tires for, because it can be pretty rough on them, but like I said, McFadden seemed to be in a different groove late in that feature.
Going forward, if Roth loses the appeal, McFadden would drop behind Bill Rose in the standings, down to 17th, and the four missed races would make that deficit even larger. It's a fairly devastating penalty, and it's clear the series is sending a message here. As is always the case in racing, the three things you don't mess with are tires, fuel, and engines. There are lots of comments from fans about this team remaining on the road full time with the Outlaws, and you have to wonder if them falling off will be a possibility after this. That's not a hole you'll be able to dig out of come World Finals. This will all obviously depend on how the appeal process goes. Even if the team is eventually found guilty, the penalties levied could be reduced. So that's everything I know today about this situation. I hate it for JMac, because I think he's a talented racer, and this will certainly ding his reputation for a while. They weren't going to win the championship this season, but they would have been a factor all season for the top five. Drop your thoughts on this whole thing in the comment section below.
And speaking of comments, I want to update you on yesterday's results when it comes to music or no music from the announcers during broadcasts. It's pretty clear that most of you favor music of some type. At last count, there were 140 yes to music votes, and only 36 no to music comments. There was a fantastic point made in those comments yesterday too from Seth. He basically said if there was less down time during these shows, that music or no music wouldn't really matter. And I agree with that. More tracks and series need to do a better job moving programs along. Thanks to everyone who voted yesterday.
One other news item for you from yesterday, and this is relevant to yesterday's show topic. While Alex Bowman recovers from his injury, the Alex Bowman Ally 55 sprint car won't sit quiet. The team will use driver Jake Swanson as a fill in for the upcoming High Limit shows. Swanson is known for his non-wing exploits which includes three wins a year ago with the Xtreme series, two career USAC national victories, six USAC CRA wins, and multiple USAC national midget scores. Looking around the interwebs, it seems as though he doesn't have much in the way of winged experience. That will change though next Tuesday when High Limit goes to Kokomo.
I'm going to call it a show right there. Feel free to leave any weekend win picks down in the comment section, where you're headed this weekend, and what you'll be watching on the streaming services. You've got the World of Outlaws sprint cars, USMTS, the late model stuff we talked about yesterday, plus a ton of local and regional racing coming up. Don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel, and if you want to score some DIRTRACKR merch, grab a shirt, hat or decal over at shop.dirtrackr.com.
There are no lack of options this weekend across the streaming services. Even with some of the cancellations we've already talked about, and there will be more to come, especially in the east today, we are around 100 items on the streaming schedule through Sunday. To keep up each day, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a good weekend out there, we'll see you back here on Monday.