Hayden Woods has been suspended from Kingsport Speedway following a crash that took place just past the finish line of last night’s 60-lap race.
Woods and Wayne Hale tangled as the race headed to the finish line and spilled over past the checkered flag. The tangle caused major damage to Zeke Shell and Justin Fontaine’s cars while Hale escaped with slight cosmetic damage and Woods drove around to the front stretch to be interviewed for finishing third.
From there things escalated as Shell was extremely upset about the damage to his car and Hale was upset about the altercation as well. Woods parked in second position behind the winner of the race Kres VanDyke on the front stretch. Woods was approached about the contact almost immediately before he even exited his car and Hale after getting out of his car to check the damage drove around to the front stretch and pulled up beside of Woods.
Woods says that the story began long before the contact on the front straightaway coming to and after the checkered flag. Woods insists that it was the way that Hale had driven him during the race that led to the post race skirmish.
“Wayne Hale wants to throw his nose in all the time,” said Woods. “I got tired of it honestly. I’ve been taught to pass people, not divebomb them like Wayne did to me. He probably did that to me ten times in the race. On that final restart he hit me again and threw me up into Zeke (Shell) which is what got me and him past him. Then the last lap he drove in there on me again and hit me in the left rear.”
“I leaned back on him really hard. It was hard racing. I wanted him to know that I wasn’t happy with him. I didn’t mean to turn him after the race, I just wanted him to know I didn’t appreciate how he hit me over and over. I actually turned him by accident, we crossed the line and I immediately let off the gas and turned down into him and he got a little further in front of me because he didn’t let off. That’s why he got turned up the track like that.”
Woods also offered that he never intended to tear up anyone’s car.
“I hate that Zeke (Shell) and Justin (Fontaine) got tore up in that deal. I didn’t mean to turn him and I definitely didn’t mean to get them tore up. It was just a mistake. I intentionally hit Wayne but not to turn him.”
Hale’s account of the race and the last lap battle and subsequent wreck wasn’t quite the same as Woods’ observations.
“We were riding there and he was holding me up,” said Hale. “So I hit in the center of the corner trying to get up under him. Then I got into him one time a little too hard and I let him gather it up and went back to racing him. On the last lap I got him a little bit and got beside him and went down the track to stay off of him and drag race him down the straightaway and he turned down into me.”
“I cut the wheel down and held it and kept from wrecking and we crossed the finish line and he cut down into me again. I was way down the track and he just kept coming and he spun me up in front of the field. I don’t know how we didn’t get t-boned there as the field came at us.”
After the race was over and the smoke cleared from the wrecked cars in turn one it got even more interesting for Woods as immediately he was approached at his car with a crew member cussing him and climbing over the wall to go after him.
“Mark Ketron walks up to the wall and starts cussing me,” explained Woods. “And he started coming over the wall and I was still in my car. His car fell out on like lap 15 or something so I don’t even know what he had to do with it. He shouldn’t have been there and there were several crew members coming over running their mouths about it.”
Then as all this was happening Hale had driven his car around the track and pulled up alongside Woods car. Woods said that Hale was upset but didn’t have much to say.
“He came over and said something but it didn’t really get out of hand honestly,” continued Woods. “Him and his team didn’t really have much to say and didn’t act out at all. I mean he had a right to be mad at me unlike a lot of them who were running their mouths to me.”
Hale offered that he didn’t allow himself to get too upset because he’s point racing already and didn’t want a penalty.
“I just pulled up there and told him he needed to backup and get out of my way because I finished second and not him,” said Hale. “He said I tried to wreck him and I told him I didn’t wreck him and could have easily if I had wanted to. I hit him sure, it’s Kingsport Speedway, everyone bumps into everyone else. The track layout leads to that kind of racing.”
“He lost his temper. He wanted to finish second but we all do bump and runs. He did it to Zeke and I did it to him. It was nothing out of the ordinary but he didn’t want to finish third. If he would have went into the side of me and tried to break my momentum it would have just been racing but he tried to wreck me twice and succeeded the last time.”
After Hale pulled up and they had their conversation, Shell had jumped out of his car and he was fit to be tied. Shell began running over to the front stretch to confront Woods but was stopped by crew members and officials. He did argue with Woods on several occassions but nothing further came of it because officials stepped in every time. Shell admits he was upset and didn’t understand why Woods would do that after the race.
“It was a great battle,” said Shell. “It really was, it was a great race. Hayden (Woods) had got around me and I had a tire going down because for a lack of better words, how Hayden passes people. Wayne got into him a little and moved him up the track and they were heading for the checkered flag and they were door banging and beating on one another. Then all of sudden after the finish line Hayden just darts left into Wayne and hits him, intentionally turning him up the track right into my path.”
“I don’t know how any questions whether it was intentional or not. It was as clear as it is when the sun rises, you know the sun has risen. I locked it down and I have some good brakes and I don’t think Justin (Fontaine) had time to stop. I about stopped to avoid it all and then Justin ended up on top of me. There was nowhere he could go.”
Shell’s car was destroyed as was Fontaine’s car but Shell said that despite all the damage that he wasn’t injured and the wreck didn’t feel like much of an impact.
“I haven’t seen the car real good in the daylight,” explained Shell. “It did a decent amount of damage to the chassis but I think my dad and one of my crew members got that fixed today while I’m playing dad to my daughter today while my wife is at Martinsville with her brother at the truck race. I’m fine but it destroyed the body on the car. You couldn’t have done more damage with a grenade. The body was held together with the wrap on it but every piece was broken.”
Photos by Jon Pittman
Shell isn’t sure he’ll be able to race in the next event and isn’t sure when he’ll race again after the crash destroyed his car.
“Hundreds of man hours, days I could have been earning money and countless hours I could have spent with my daughter instead of working on the car are wiped out,” commented Shell. “If we do make it back it’ll be because of the help of the other teams and drivers. (Ronnie) McCarty helped get the car to where we could load it in the trailer and I think his mom (Gina) paid my tire bill. Taylor Coffman offered to give us a body back that we sold him a couple years back but it won’t fit the mounts we have. Lots of people are offering to help and if we make it back it’ll be because of them.”
Hale was really no worse for wear other than having some cosmetic damage but Woods won’t be competing in the next event at Kingsport Speedway because he’s already been suspended from the track.
“During tech the race director came over and said that he had to do something and told me I was suspended from the next event,” explained Woods. “I didn’t even really try to argue with him. I mean I spun Hale but it wasn’t what it looked like but it’s whatever. I wasn’t planning to run the whole season at Kingsport anyways so it doesn’t matter one way or the other.”
Track manager Karen Tunnell offered that the one-race suspension might be extended and his penalties haven’t been decided yet.
“The race director gave him his punishment but I haven’t spoke yet,” said Tunnell. “I’m not sure that’s a harsh enough penalty honestly. We don’t want cars getting destroyed. Destroyed cars cost the race track money and we don’t need that.”
Tunnell says that the extent of the penalty doesn’t just come from the on-track crash.
“Lots of words were exchanged in the pits and lots of things went on that I’m not very happy about. Hayden exchanged words with many crew members and in front of fans. I feel like I’m a elementary principal sometimes. I want good hard racing but I don’t want torn up race cars. I’m a fan as well as a promoter, so I like the fender banging and all but I have to police it and I don’t want destroyed cars or anyone hurt.”
When asked if anyone else was being looked at for punishment from all the chaos after the race Tunnell said that Woods was the only one.
“Hayden and Wayne had a good battle going and it’s unfortunate that it ended like that with cars tore up. Hayden said he never lifted and that really makes the decision to suspend him a simple easier. Hayden is the only one who’s going to be punished. He just wouldn’t leave it alone and all the stuff that happened on pit road after the race he was in the middle of.”
Tunnell also said that Ketron, who Woods described as cussing him and coming after him on the track after the race was already dealt with.
“I have taken care of Mark Ketron and I’ll just leave it at that.”
Shell and Hale disagreed with the tracks decision to suspend Woods. Hale thought it wasn’t enough and they should have taken him out of the finishing order for Friday nights race, Shell said that suspending him is the wrong decision.
“I don’t agree with the suspension,” said Shell. “He destroys three cars and then the track throws him out and eliminates our chance to get even? How is that the right thing to do? The fans deserve to see it play out and deserve to see a great show in the next race. I had high hopes for Hayden this year. I saw him work on his own car for the first time. I thought he’d really grown up but that wasn’t the case. He’s still immature.”
One of the most talked about moments of the post-race skirmish was Woods conversation with Hale and his interview following the race where Hale, Shell and Tunnell say that Woods said that he “had deeper pockets than everyone else and could do whatever he wanted to do”. Woods says that comment was misleading and wasn’t intended in the way that people are saying.
“It was adrenaline,” concluded Woods. “It wasn’t meant like it came out. I was in the heat of the moment and Wayne said something about tearing up my car and I just wanted him to know that getting into tearing up cars was probably a bad idea for him because while my family isn’t rich we’re very blessed and we have more cars than they do and can afford to tear them up easier than they could. It was just a slip of the tongue in the way it was said. I’m not like that, I don’t ever talk about money.”
Shell added that Woods shouldn’t rub his deep pockets in everyone’s face.
“He rubbed his deep pockets in Wayne and everyone else’s face,” commented Shell. “Having daddy’s money isn’t a bad thing but that’s a bad attitude to have. Knowing Tommy (Hayden’s dad), the thought of him saying that probably wouldn’t make him very happy. I’m sure he’d have been in trouble if his dad would have heard him say that.”
Tunnell will have the last word in this mess when she hands down Woods’ punishment on Monday. For now Woods is suspended for one race, Shell is on the sidelines until he gets his car back together, Hale is chasing points already and after a boring start a week ago, Kingsport is back to being Kingsport once again.
