Paul Tracy suspended from Superstar Racing Experience after controversial wreck
Paul Tracy has been suspended from the Superstar Racing Experience series after his involvement in a controversial wreck Thursday night at Pulaski County Motorsports Park in Radford, Virginia that eliminated himself, Josef Newgarden and Ken Schrader. Kyle Busch won the race in his first series start.
"We take issues regarding driver safety extremely seriously at SRX," said the series Chief Executive Officer Don Hawk in an Instagram post. " This is not a decision we take lightly. It is our responsibility to ensure that we foster a competitive, and most importantly, a safe racing environment. I have been in contact with Paul directly and we appreciate his cooperation on this matter."
Tracy has been part of every SRX race held in series' history earning five top-fives in 15 previous starts. His best finish is a third at Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, Connecticut in last year's season opener.
The incident in question from Pulaski was between Tracy and Newgarden when Tracy drove his car into the competitor's door and turned sideways in front of the field. Schrader was caught up in the accident and did not pull any punches when describing his feelings.
"Green (Tracy's car) had Black (Newgarden) shoved into the outside wall," Schrader said as he walked away from his mangled machine. "I'm not running another race with him. I'm done."
Compounding Schrader's frustration were incidents in the two previous races this season. He was spun by Tracy in Heat 2 of the season opener. The two made contact again in Race 2, but this time it was Schrader who sent Tracy spinning.
Tracy saw the Pulaski incident differently.
"Newgarden and I were bumping off each other for a couple of laps and as I got a nose ahead of him, half a car ahead of him, I just got hooked and turned sideways down the straightaway," Tracy said. "It was just hard racing at the end there. Ten laps to go and everyone's going for it hard."
After Thursday night's race, series owner indicated this decision was imminent. When asked about what it will take to dial down the aggression of drivers who are tearing up cars, Stewart said at about the 1:21 mark in a Frontstretch interview on YouTube: "Quit having the guys who are tearing cars up come back. I haven't seen any of the stuff. Luckily it was all behind me, but it sounds like it was the same cast of characters."
