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2009 Purse Info Here!
Information
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Ward Avoids Crash, Fight to Take Victory
A last lap crash, post race confusion and a Friday night short track
brawl left fans talking after the June 26 Walls' Roofing UCAR Clash
Race at Wake County Speedway, but 'Rowdy' Rob Ward avoided the drama
and quietly slipped off with the big trophy in his first Clash race
of the season.
All eyes were on Wake County regulars Kevin Herndon and Robert Arch,
who dominated their two heat races and made up the front row of the
feature. Points leader Keith Brame Jr. pulled into the track a mere
20 minutes before the feature event after driving to a 2nd place run
at Ace Speedway earlier in the evening.
Arch set the pace early, pulling ahead of Herndon and the rest of
the field before an early caution for a crash in turn four between
Travis Taylor and Jason Miller. All cars continued on.
Herndon took the lead after the restart and pulled away from the
field, nearly putting points leader Brame a lap down before a caution
for the spinning David Wiggins bunched the field back up.
Herndon would pace the field until a late race caution by Kelley
Bottomley set up a six lap dash for the finish.
On the restart, Arch pulled to the inside of Herndon, the two making
contact through turns one and two.
On the backstretch, Arch touched the rear bumper of Herndon, sending
the #58 Geo head on into the inside wall.
A lap after the cars took the caution flag, with Arch leading, track
owner Glenn Simpkins made the call to end the race on lap 45 due to
Wake County's noise ordinance. The checkered flag was thrown without
consulting Clash officials.
After much debate and confusion, including Arch's celebratory climb
up onto the roof of his car on the front stretch, The win was handed
to second place driver Rob Ward. According to Larry Walls, the Clash
series director, if the race would have returned to green flag
racing, both Herndon (whose car was disabled) and Arch would have
been sent to the rear of the field for their incident. Clash rules
state both cars involved in an accident, regardless of fault, are
penalized.
That would have placed Ward at the front of the pack. Since the race
was never restarted, Ward was the winner.
After the race, Deac McCaskill, owner of Herndon's car and Robert
Arch had a confrontation at the track's scale area. A brawl erupted
with both teams throwing punches and crew members from other teams
jumping into the fray.
The cars of both Arch and Herndon were disqualified for their roles
in the fight and stripped of the evening's purse and points.
McCaskill's entire #58 team has been suspended from the next UCAR
Clash race. Arch, who was already on probation for an incident that
occurred earlier this year at Fayetteville Motor Speedway, has been
suspended for the rest of the season.
After the smoke cleared, Second place was given to Shane Phillips.
Mike Strickland was scored in third and Brame, who started 19th on
the field, was scored in fourth. Second place points driver Renno
Marchetti IV rounded out the top five.
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