[Chuckwells]

We ran into a situation where our driver was accused of hitting the restart cone Saturday night. The officials were unable to provide any evidence of this and we lost the transfer spot and points. This cost us dearly since we were in the points lead. Whether Dickie hit the cone or not , in this day and age wouldn’t you think a track would be able to provide video for situations like this? When I addressed the issue with the track on social media I was blocked from Commenting or messaging on the track’s page. I did not swear or use vulgure language just asked a question. I find it very unprofessional to handle the situation this way. Any thoughts or video footage of the race would be helpful thanks.

[Shawn]

Unfortunately, my thoughts are that Dickie for sure hit the cone. It’s too bad they blocked you from their page though. Maybe they’d rather not deal with it on social media? I’m not sure.

[Chuckwells]

And that’s fine Shawn, if he did hit the cone but believed he didn’t wouldn’t you as a track promoter have all ends covered by getting videos of restarts and other situations just to put controversy like this to bed. Also to just avoid the whole thing especially after getting feedback from other racers and pit members saying otherwise is pretty unprofessional.

[Charles Nungester]

I don't know that many tracks actually have video for specific purposes of evidence, some have video makers and sellers.

Speedshifttv.com has the event on their replay plan. That being said, the camera usually follows the first two cars. Don't know if it would be worth your while to purchase that. Maybe someone who has it can watch and see if it shows anything

I can't imagine calling the penalty just to punish him, Yet all rules have to be enforced equally.

Good Luck JSR.

[Shawn]

I understand, Chuckwells, for sure. It’s frustrating and you want answers. I was just giving my thoughts. It’s hard for a local track to have video of everything. It’d be nice, but It’s just not possible. I hope y’all have some good fortune going forward.

[Chuckwells]

All races and any other professional sporting events should be recorded bottom line. No excuse to not be this day and age. When you are dealing with people’s money and some people’s livelihood would be in the track’s best interest in my opinion.

[Chuckwells]

Thanks Shawn appreciate the kind words

[kdobson]

This is one of those posts I know as I'm typing it biting the tongue would have been the better option. But this is raw nerve territory for me as a race track promoter.

[BEGIN RANT] I don't feel like even in this day and age a track owes you video proof. What a track owes you as a competitor is a staff that is experienced, thoughtful and capable of making the best decision they can without prejudice or bias under the circumstances. I don't have the luxury of a TV truck and 5 different camera angles and staff to stop a race and review video footage like you would in professional sports and get a call right at the time it happens. Nor do the fans who pay your purse want to sit through that.

And yes.. that video proof would have to happen right after the incident. Not at the end of the race. It's just as unfair to the guy you are going to penalize to wait until all chance for him to pass and overcome the penalty is gone as it is to not penalize in the first place. The NFL doesn't wait till a game ends 4th and goal at the three yard line, then the next day come back and say video shows they missed a 10 yard penalty in the 1st quarter so they are going to award a touchdown.

What you are talking about is a race stoppage to review video. Where is the car that later was determined to have not hit the cone going to be scored? Where he was running at the time of the bad call? It might have been lap 3 and the whole field was going to pass him anyway. We don't need race stoppages to review video. The only time in our form of racing a video could be properly implemented is pretty much on the last lap of a race at or near the finish line. Otherwise any call you correct after the race or the next day does not take into account the racing that was yet to be completed.

A track hires the best crew it can hire and every one of them at tracks across America make the best calls they can at the time under the circumstances. They aren't always dead-on perfect -but they are right a whole lot more often than given credit for. I don't expect my officials to be perfect. I expect their best effort and reasoned decisions. When they screw one up and we know it - we admit it and try to remedy it the best we can given what transpired afterwards. Some calls go for you and some against you. We get some right and I know we will occasionally get one wrong. But don't ask me to review video and change 10 laps of racing that went on in the interim. It's darn hard to fix a problem after the racing is completed.

Officials are expected to be perfect every lap of every race for an entire season. A race team... a couple perfect nights a year makes for a really good season. [/END RANT]

[Chuckwells]

Nobody is talking about five different angles with a production crew and I’m not saying the track owes us anything. I am saying if I am a track owner I would have one of my officials on the infield with his smart phone recording the race to go back to for any explanation of a situation. You don’t have to stop a race to check either. You can go to the video in between races. It’s very simple don’t make it sound like we are asking for a lot when I see people post longer videos about what they are gonna eat that day online. Anytime someone is getting paid to play you should be recording so you can show that person why. I deal with professional athletes from many different sports and can’t think of one besides dirt track racing that isn’t required to video each event. Even a small time MMA event in the backwoods of Kentucky with maybe 100 people in attendance is required by Law to record their event . Even if it’s Billy Bob standing on a ladder with his 1999 flip phone atleast it’s something. Like I said , it’s not asking for much and we aren’t the only team to feel this way either. We were approached by several other drivers and crew members that expressed the same feelings.

[Chuckwells]

Easy solution, put a go pro on The official responsible for the cone. He watches the restarts and watches the race. Problem solved, cost = 200$ for the GoPro very easy. Of course there will be situations when the field is so far spread out that he will not be able to catch everything on video but at least an effort was made. Instead of making excuses about not having the money to do something at least make an effort. It’s simple don’t make it a lot more complicated than it really is to try and justify not doing anything.