SUMMER SHOOTOUT: Round 2 Leftovers - 6/19/07
By Jason Buckley, Matt Dillner and Ashley Thomson
SLACK CALLS OUT DIRTY DRIVING TACTICS IN DRIVERS MEETING
One of the most interesting places to be on Tuesday night was the drivers meeting before the heat races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The meetings are usually pretty entertaining, but this one had a very serious tone.
Roger Slack addressed the drivers in the first round driver's meeting, but was very vocal the second time around. (LN Photo)
Summer Shootout Director of Events Roger Slack called out ‘rough driving’ and called for an end to it. In doing so, they showed video of several instances of dirty-driving that were captured by SPEED television cameras during the opening night of racing. Those incidents included week-one’s Semi-Pro division last-lap incident where Justin Lloyd was set down for taking out leader Zach Stroupe on the last lap. Also pointed out was Trevor Farbo’s bump on the last lap to leader Dylan Presnell in the Young Lions feature. Presnell won the race by a few feet over Farbo, but Slack said Farbo would not have kept the victory if he would have been ahead at the finish.
Slack called for an end to the driving tactics and threatened severe penalties including year-long suspensions for violators. . He stated there were 217 cars in attendance for round two, and that was about 40 more than he cared to have if the racing doesn’t get better.
Slack also commented if it doesn’t get better, they will end the television deal with SPEED and just hold races on the 1/5th-mile track behind Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
VAN WINGERDEN WEIGHS IN HEAVY ON PRO COMPETITION
This season a lot of Semi-Pro Legends drivers moved up to the Pro division, adding a younger and smaller-stature group to the mix. At well over six feet tall, Pro driver Thomas Van Wingerden towers over the competition. Even though he likes the new wave of talent coming up into his division, he knows they have a bit of a weight advantage.
“It makes it more fun and a whole lot of competition,” said Van Wingerden. “The only thing is they are only about 14 or 15 (years old) and weigh about 125 pounds less than I do so they have a little bit more left side weight than I do. But hey, I just keep going out there and having a good time. That is all I can do.”
RAIN DOESN’T SLOW DOWN KING
Some of the competitors had their hands full with slick track conditions due to periodic thunder showers. Bandolero Young Gun driver Clint King actually enjoyed racing through the rain drops.
“It made a difference,” said King, who finished second. “These tires react to anything on the track. It worked into my advantage though so I didn’t push up and hit the wall. We’ve been real tight this week and just loose off. We tweaked on it and a little sprinkle of rain loosened the track up which came to my advantage.”
RODERICK GOES FROM HERO TO ZERO BUT KEEPS CHIN UP
Casey Roderick's car was a bit damaged. (LN Photo)
Casey Roderick handles himself like a poised veteran on and off the track. The 14-year old driver is the defending Legends Pro Division Champion and won last year’s Legends Nationals at Lanier Speedway (GA), plus the PRI event in Orlando in December. This season he started out by winning his heat race and feature in week number-one of the Summer Shootout. But as every racing veteran knows, race day isn’t always going to be perfect. In week two’s edition, Roderick was on the move but saw his chances of a repeat win end up on the tow-hook and in the pit area with a bent up racecar.
“I was following (Chris) Buescher and we were running pretty well on the outside,” said Roderick. “We were staying right there with Tyler Green and all of them on the outside and I was just hanging tough. I got a good run going down into one and Buescher just pushed up and I got under him. That made us three wide. I tried to get out of it but it didn’t quite work out for me. Buescher gave me plenty of room but it’s unfortunate that someone got under me and made it three wide. Coming out of turn four we just ran out of racing room. I hate it for both of us.
Roderick didn’t let the incident tear him up too bad. As they say, there is always next week.
“You have to hold your head up and come back next week and rebound from it. You are going to have nights like this so you just have to keep your head up and that’s what I am going to do.”
THE ROCK ROLLS TO THE FRONT AFTER HEAD-ON WRECK
Bandolero Bandit driver Ronnie Bassett and his family have a “never give up” attitude when it comes to racing. That attitude was put to the test on Tuesday night. The #04 team had their hands full fixing a bent up racecar after a hard practice crash. They got the car ready just in time for the feature and then Ronnie made his way up from a 28th starting spot to finish fourth in the main event.
Ronnie Bassett's crew works on getting his car repaired for the feature.. (LN Photo)
“We got turned head on into the wall,” said Ronnie of the heat race incident. “We came back in and got it ready for the main. We had to work for it. I never get anything easy and we all work real hard at what we do. I have to thank Walter and my dad for getting this thing fixed for the heat race and Clint King who was going to give me his backup car if I couldn’t get this car fixed for the main event.
“It’s a front clip, but we still drove it. We just changed the horns. We had a lot of people helping us out and that’s why we were able to make the race. Never give up.”
SECOND-PLACE FINISH FOR SHALVOY BUILDS CONFIDENCE
Many drivers in the Bandolero Bandits have a year or two’s-worth of experience under their belts. However, some new faces have entered this year’s Shootout looking to finish races and learn how to race. Sean Shalvoy is one of those drivers. But instead of just learning, Shalvoy nearly pulled off a win in his first year racing in the Bandolero scene.
“My car was good from the beginning,” said Shalvoy. “There was a big crash at the beginning that shot me up to third. I passed (Matt) Wallace and from then on I was just trying to chase down Dillon Bassett. He was just too far ahead.
“It was amazing. For my first year it is pretty good getting second at Lowe’s at the Summer Shootout. It feels really good and is a big confidence booster.”
RAGAN BOOTED OUT OF HEAT BUT HAVING FUN RACING LEGENDS CARS
You may think that being the son of 600 Racing General Manager Ken Ragan, David Ragan wouldn’t have too many problems going through technical inspection. If you thought that, you are wrong. Ragan, who races for Roush/Fenway Racing on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, borrowed a car from Doug Stevens to have some fun at the Summer Shootout. He did well in his heat but was found too light in post-race tech.
David Ragan working on his car. (LN Photo)
“I guess Doug is a little heavier than I am,” laughed Ragan, who finished 18th in the feature. “We got thrown out after our heat race for being just a few pounds short. We then had to make it through the B-main. We would have been fine in the feature if we were able to run the whole 20-laps. The car was really fast but because it was called short I felt like we left a little bit out there. I just wish we had a little better track conditions with the wet and dry, back and forth because that is no fun.”
But Ragan did have fun getting to come out and race in the series that helped propel his racing career. After the race he was bent over putting on a fresh bumper on Stevens’ #177 car before it headed back to Georgia and he headed out to Milwaukee for the NASCAR Busch Series race.
“I borrow my buddy’s (Doug Stevens’) car and I wanted to bring it back to where he would say ‘man he took care of this thing, maybe I’ll let him race it again.’ They build these Legends cars so simple you just load them up on the trailer bumper to bumper and just go down the road. It would have looked bad if the first thing he saw when it rolled out was a bent bumper.”
Ragan told LegendsNation.com that he is currently building his own Legends Car so he can have some fun racing on Tuesday nights.
HEAT RACE WRECK ENDS RACE FOR CRUM; FRUSTRATES BEATTIE
Jake Crum was in a great mood Tuesday at the Summer Shootout. Just a few days earlier, he won the UARA-Stars Late Model Stock Car race at Coastal Plains Raceway (NC). It didn’t take long for the good mood to turn sour as his Legends car was demolished in a Pro division heat race.
“I don’t really know what happened,” said Crum. “I was running fourth and someone missed a shift. I got down under him and he just turned into me.
“The car is done. I think we are going to get a new car.”
Kyle Beattie was also involved in the same wreck. While he was able to continue racing after repairs to his car, he was frustrated by the driving of some in the field.
“I think the guy that chose the outside pole looked like he had a slow start,” said Beattie. “The guy in front of me went three-wide in the middle. They got together and someone turned into the wall. I hit the brakes and tried to stop. I hit him with the left front and bent the left front corner all up and smashed the bumper in. It wouldn’t turn to the right after that.
“I think some of these guys go out and run those big cars, then come back here and think the Legends cars are a bunch of toys. They go out and do what they want. A lot of these kids need to get their egos checked and learn how to drive a race car before moving up.”
STROUPE PENALIZED AFTER RACE FOR EARLY-RACE INCIDENT
While Ryan Glenski stole most of the headlines during the Bandolero Young Guns race, another intriguing story unfolded in the post-race tech shed. During the first few laps of the race, a quick restart caused a bottleneck or racecars and confusion for some. Going into turn-one Nick Stroupe’s #45 car got together with the #22 of Jordan Coker. Coker spun, while Stroupe sailed on and crossed the line fourth at race’s end. But after the race, Stroupe was informed that he was set down for rough driving by track officials.
“I was going down into one and Blake (Eden) was leading and Glenski was second,” said Coker of the incident. “Glenski didn’t give me enough room really. When I slipped up, the 45 came in behind me and I was going backwards from that point. I think it was more of a deal that I was run over.”
Stroupe claims the contact was not intentional.
“We were going down into one and everybody slowed up and a couple of people got together,” explained Stroupe. “It was a chain reaction and I had nowhere to go and I got into him. Then he got a little loose and you just can’t slow down that fast and I got into him again and he went the rest of the way around.
“I came in to the pits and I thought I was good because they never said anything or black flagged us. When we pulled in, they let me know. I would think with the cautions they would have put me to the rear instead of telling me after the race. It happened around lap four or five and we had about 15 more laps of green so I don’t know why they didn’t do that. I guess we’ll just be back and try hard next week.”
Coker was credited with 12th and Stroupe was moved back to 13th in the final results.
MOTOR PROTEST AT FRIENDSHIP COMES TO THE SHOOTOUT
Many rules are put into a racing series to keep everyone legal. But in most cases, the tech officials do not have the time to completely tear a car down to make sure every aspect is legal. Officials at a racing event will usually pick a few random items to check on the cars in tech to see if they are legal. For anything further, the “protest” rule comes into play.
Ty Dillon. (Photo by Fastrac Images)
A team can protest another team if they feel something on the car is not legal. They have to put up money to protest, and if the car is found legal, they lose the cash. In the Legends world, the protest rule is a good set of checks and balances in situations where complete car teardown is not practical.
At Friendship Motor Speedway (NC) Saturday, the protest rule was used when third place Ty Dillon’s team felt Steven Ross’ #88 Legends car was a bit too powerful. Due to lack of equipment at Friendship, the protest carried over to Monday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway for the Summer Shootout practice.
“At Friendship they didn’t have the compression tester,” said Ross. “They went ahead and sealed the motor all the way around so there was no way we could get into it. They checked it here (Lowe’s Motor Speedway) Monday and it checked right. We knew it was right so there was no pressure on us.
“It was a close race between me and Ty Dillon. He was right behind us. I guess he thought we had something extra under the hood. It happens in racing sometimes. They went ahead and did the protest and we passed. The Hank Scott motor was legal and I knew it was. I guess you have to deal with that sometimes in racing when you start beating people. They are going to protest you because they think you are cheating. Once they check the car and see it is legal there is nothing else they can do and everything should be good after that.”
Steven Ross has been fast at Friendship Motor Speedway. (LN Photo)
On Dillon’s end, he didn’t have a problem with Ross or his team. He just wanted to make sure everyone was on the same playing field.
“It was just an idea we had in our camp,” said Dillon. “It wasn’t anything personal against him. It was just something we had seen that we thought was a little iffy. We have nothing wrong with him personally. We just needed to know for ourselves.
“It was just a check.”
LANDON CASSILL HAVING FUN AS A SPECTATOR
Landon Cassill is young driver that everyone is waiting to see in the upper-ranks of NASCAR someday. That someday is fast approaching as the young driver is now a Hendrick Motorsports Development Driver. If you ask him about his life right now, he will tell you he is “living the dream.” Cassill has fond memories of racing the Lowe’s Motor Speedway Summer Shootout just three years ago. He ran six in the Pro division that year. While Landon now spends his time testing racecars for Hendrick Motorsports, he wanted to come out and see how things have changed at the Shootout. He was amazed how much more competitive the fields have become.
“It’s just cool to come back and see how everything has changed and all the people that I used to race with,” said Cassill, who was a spectator with friend and Joe Gibbs Racing Development Driver Joey Logano. “It’s cool to come back and check it out. There are a ton of cars here. I do remember them having a B-main in Semi-Pro but man, I think they have over 50 Semi-Pros out here today. The competition has just exploded and it’s pretty impressive how they run this whole thing.”
AFTER MUCH PRAISE MASTERS RACE TURN INTO A MESS
While many of the Bandolero and Legends division took a verbal spanking during Tuesday night’s drivers meeting, the Legends Masters division was pointed out as an example of how a race should be driven. Week number-one was a highly entertaining, clean race without much incident.
Well, it was clear after watching that week-two’s Legends Masters race that the praise would not be repeated when they returned for the third week of the Shootout. Bottom line is, the Masters race was a mess. Division favorites were dropping like flies and the yellow flag seemed to be the most popular site. Was it lack of respect between competitors, circumstance, or just hard racing? Opinions differ.
“I was just out there kind of riding around watching,” said Clay Hair, who avoided much of the chaos to finish second. “Just watching everybody coming up off the corner. You get up under somebody and you know, I’m trying to be a nice guy about the deal, but nice guys finish second. I hate it for the other guys getting spun out. I’d rather race with those guys. Probably need to be a little bit aggressively smarter next time.”
John Barilka, who stayed clean and finished third, believes the format of the race may be responsible for the trouble that plagued Tuesday night’s caution-filled feature.
Ryan Glenski. (LN Photo)
“The ‘Choose’ double-file restarts are kind of like a recipe for disaster,” said Barilka. “I can see maybe doing it on the first restart, but to do it two or three times, it’s a flat track, there’s no room, it’s slick, half these things are leaking oil and with these open wheel cars you just slip up a little bit and you pile them up. I just think that’s a little too much worrying about the show. The guys who are going to run in the front are going to run in the front anyway. It just encourages somebody with more courage than talent to go to the outside and be in the way.”
IN-CAR CAMERA CAPTURES GLENSKI WIN
All cameras were on Ryan Glenski as he wheeled his #28 to the front in entertaining fashion during the Bandolero Young Guns feature. In fact, more cameras than usual captured Glenski’s big win..
“We had an in car camera in the car tonight,” said Glenski. “Last year we had an in-car camera and it didn’t really show up. So this time they gave us one for free. They had one behind my head and one and one in front for a face shot. That will be on during the second week of the shootout when it airs on SPEED.
So did the young-gun ‘ham it up’ for the cameras when he crossed the start-finish line?
“I gave the camera a little shake with the ‘one’ when it was done,” admitted Glenski with a smile.
While Ryan Glenski led the pack, contact behind him started controversy. (photo by Fastrack Images)
