As per Lawrenceburg Speedway track rules:
The driver and owner assumes responsibility for all actions of the pit crew, sponsors, and themselves at all times and shall be the sole spokesperson for the car and crew in any and all matters pertaining to the race and with officials in charge. If the driver is also the owners, only he/she will be the sole spokesperson.
I am not sure who Chuck Wells is but he is neither the owner nor the driver of the car that was penalized. Although he has no recourse in what transpired Saturday night I am still going to try to address his concerns.
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The Lawrenceburg Speedway Facebook page is a marketing tool to promote the racetrack. It is not a place to debate calls, rule changes, or air your grievances. There are other avenues for the appropriate people to take if they have those issues.
To tell people to "go to their page and blow up their page and make them respond" is childish.
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Saturday was the annual USAC Midget Week show at Lawrenceburg which is a little different than our normal race nights. Since USAC was in-house there was some time throughout the night where track officials weren't busy trying to run a smooth and speedy program for the fans and competitors.
On the final restart of the Sprint B Main Dickie Gaines hit the cone. At least five race officials (some with decades of experience) saw him hit the cone. Before the penalty was assessed they discussed the incident and they all agreed as to what had happened and that a penalty was required. It was announced over the PA that Gaines hit the cone, it went flying across the track, and he was penalized two positions and therefore did not transfer to the feature.
The Race Director left the tower and went to the pits to inform the team. Subsequently, Gaines came to the tower asking about the penalty and was told multiple officials saw him hit the cone and that was why he was penalized.
I want to make this perfectly clear. We are not going to penalize anyone unless we are 100% certain as to what happened.
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Speedshift TV was at the track recording for their live pay-per-view broadcast. This is something that doesn't happen on a regular race night. The video is available to watch online, which I did and gathered these screenshots:
In this screenshot from the final restart you can see race leader JJ Hughes approaching the flagstand followed by Clinton Boyles, Michael Fischesser, Tony DiMattia, Dickie Gaines, Shawn Westerfeld and others. The restart cone is visible to the left (inside) of Fischesser. Drivers are told they must remain nose-to-tail until they pass the cone. They must not go under the cone or touch the cone.
Continuing in sequence Hughes has reached the flagstand and is followed by Boyles, Fischesser, DiMattia, and Gaines who is moving to the inside of DiMattia. The restart cone is visible just above the roll cage of Fischesser.
Hughes has just now passed the flagstand followed by Boyles and Fischesser. DiMattia has almost reached the cone which you can see slightly ahead of, and to the left of, his left front tire. Gaines has continued to move to the inside of DiMattia and is heading towards the cone.
Hughes is now almost out of frame followed by Boyle and Fischesser who have not yet reached the flagstand. The front of DiMattia's car has cleared the cone with Gaines still to his inside. The cone is directly in front of Gaines.
The camera has begun to pan to the right to follow Hughes who has almost exited the frame. Boyles and Fischesser are still racing towards the flagstand, and DiMattia is passing the cone. DiMattia's right front tire is not visible in this screen grab but you can see the nose of Gaines' car approaching the cone.
I have zoomed in the best I could to show the area in question. For perspective I have kept the top of Fischesser's roll cage in the shot. This is the last screenshot I could grab showing the cone because the camera pans away from this area. In the split second before Gaines reaches the area of the restart cone he is clearly to DiMattia's inside and not nose-to-tail as our rules require him to be.
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The penalty for going under the cone, hitting the cone, or getting out of line (not being nose-to-tail) is the same — two positions for each position gained. The officials determined a two-position penalty was warranted and Gaines was repositioned from fourth to sixth place in the final finishing order.
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I would also like to emphasize that these screenshots were taken from the SpeedshiftTV video. People who do this for a living, not Billy Bob standing on a ladder with a 1999 flip phone. Also, I have put a lot of time into this little "presentation" and for anyone to think that this could be done on a race night, during an event, well they don't realize how much work goes into running a race.