WINSTON SALEM, NC :: Well, we have all seen it by now, the video that is sweeping the country, another crazy night at Bowman Gray with a driver riding on the side of a car and crashes and chaos. This one went a little deeper though, lines were crossed and it almost got completely out of hand. All three drivers have been on the local news and told their politically correct stories but it hasn’t been covered from a racing standpoint with them speaking what is really on their minds… until now.
Bryant Robertson
We start off with Bryant Robertson. Bryant is the brother to the driver, Mike Robertson, which was drug down the track Saturday night by Derek Stoltz. Bryant was leading on the last lap when Stoltz initiated contact with him sending him into the pit entrance barrier driver’s side first. Bryant tried to go after Stoltz out of the car but was immediately tackled by half a dozen police officers. He still isn’t very happy about it.
Corey Latham: The focus has been on your brother and what happened with him but to me your deal was much bigger.
Bryant Robertson: Yeah, you know my daddy always told me , if you hit a man in the left your trying to spin him, if you hit him on the right your trying to hurt him. My car was tight in the center and Mike had a little better car through the corners so I had to back the corner up but I had a good run coming off. Mike could have passed me by spinning me but he said he would never do that to win a race. Then we have Derek, and we all saw what he is willing to do to win a race.
CL: It seems Derek is more aggressive this year than years past, have you noticed this before now?
BR: Back in 2010, the last race of the year, he did exactly what he did to my brother Saturday night. Going down the front stretch, he picked my rear tires up and didn’t let off until we got right in the turn. It slammed the wall and I had to put a rear clip on mine. I was on the inside waving my arm because I didn’t have any brakes when he did it to me. This ain’t our first rodeo.
CL: After the wreck Saturday, you came out of the car and ran after him, what were you planning on doing if you got to him?
BR: Oh yeah, I was planning on having a good conversation with him. I’m not going to lie, I was going to have a deep conversation, I mean, a real nice heart to heart. I mean even in the first race, yeah I was a little hot at Jeff Garrison, but then I looked at the tape and saw who was behind him when I got spun from the lead on that one. Derek.
What’s funny is, I look on the internet and see people talking junk saying I was blocking, blocking, blocking. Well of course I’m blocking, it’s a single groove track and there are 20 cars behind you trying to get by you. I’ve always been taught if you give a man half a track, that’s all you can ask for. It takes talent to pass people at Bowman Gray, it takes zero talent to bulldoze through them, or hook them in the right rear and put them driver’s door deep in a barrel. That takes no talent, you could teach a six year-old to do that.
CL: Did you see him dragging your brother behind you under caution?
BR: Well no, not really. I saw Mike getting out of his car and I wanted to make sure he was alright you know, I really didn’t know what happened behind me. Next thing I know I saw him going for Derek and I just thought he was asking him for a ride back to the pits (sarcasm at its best). You know if you crawl in a man’s passenger side you’re not going in there to hurt him, you can’t do a whole lot of damage from over there. Once the spotter yelled that he was dragging my brother, I swerved over to stop the situation. By then he had already took off like Evel Knievel and when Mike came off his car he went right for the guardrail.
CL: With all this going on, it has been getting more and more out of hand each year, where does it stop?
BR: Sadly it doesn’t. It’s the Madhouse; it’s what a lot of those people in the stands want to see. And I hate it has gotten to that. It’s got to the point that there are some guys I’d love to see back in the Sportsman division. I mean even someone like Tommy Neal, we had a lot of run-ins but we raced each other hard and we never tried to hurt anyone or hurt each other. We have stuff going on that someone needs to say “Whoa” … black flags need to start being used. I doubt it will happen though, I mean I had already taken the white flag and was on the backstretch, the whole field had taken the white when they threw the caution. It should have been the checkered and caution together, it wouldn’t have saved my brother but it would have saved my car from being tore all to hell. And it just would have been the right thing to do, like they do at every other track. I’ve been there for 20 years and have never seen them black flag a single car for rough driving, they will do it for jumping a start but not for trying to kill someone. It is what it is.
CL: Derek put on his Facebook and he told me a little while ago, he doesn’t regret at all the incident with you; he does about the thing with your brother but not your deal. What do you say to that?
BR: He doesn’t ever go to apologize to me, he done what he done and was man enough to do it. He just needs to remember, I’m going to race him the exact same way he raced me.
CL: So this coming weekend will be exciting?
BR: No, you know I’m coming to race. But I’m going to race him how he races me. My car is a little off this year, I’ll admit to that, there are some faster cars there and he is sometimes one of them. But you can pass on the outside, I’ve seen Cale Gale do it, Taylor Branch does it, it can be done. For some reason he can’t do that, that is no talent what so ever. Every true racer and every true race fan saw what happened. A lot of people there come to see wrecks, but the true “race” people know what happened. Out of the 19 other cars there at least 12 of them have called and are not happy with what happened.
I know he’s cocky and talked about eating a burger and drinking a beer with his trophy on the internet, he might eventually eat them all at the same time.
Mike Robertson
Next, we have Mike Robertson, the man who was running in second with two laps to go when Stoltz got into him and sent him into the turn one wall. Mike then made national headlines when he tried to get in the passenger side window of Stoltz’s car and was drug nearly 300’ before flipping on his head.
Corey Latham: With all this publicity you almost need a PR person now.
Mike Robertson: Not quite yet. I’m glad you called though, you’re a true race fan so at least you can give a real perspective of what is going on, a bunch of reporters have called that know nothing about racing, you know what it’s all about.
CL: I just know after what I saw Saturday none of y’all have any damn sense.
MR: That’s probably true. I do know that what happened has no gray area. Ask any real driver, ask them if they know the difference between a racing accident or an intentional accident and they will tell you it’s black and white. They know the difference, what Derek did to me was intentional.
CL: Derek pretty much said that.
MR: Yeah, and what he did five minutes later, to hook Bryant in the right rear is a travesty. It’s a travesty to human life. That’s the sad part, that for a $5 trophy and to have to be escorted home by the police because you fear for your life, is that $5 trophy worth all that?
CL: He also said that he never saw you on the side of his car until his spotter told him to stop.
MR: He stopped? I never saw him stop on the video. First of all, if you wreck a man intentionally, and he’s in the wall, and you come back around, are you not going to be watching his every move? Well, he sure saw me to swerve at me, then he headed to the guardrail to crush me. So I bailed, it happened to be at the very right moment, because if it had been a second later I would have went head first in.
CL: Well my question to you, and I’ve been wanting to ask this, why in the world did you hang onto the car that long? I would have let go 10 feet into it.
MR: I was going for the MSD wire. I thought he would be man enough to stop and talk about dinner plans for tomorrow. I wasn’t going to let go, I wasn’t, I’m Superman. Didn’t you see me flying through the air?
CL: Yeah on your head.
MR: I mean it was just sorriness all the way around, if you’re going to wreck me at least give me a ride all the way to the pits, not just halfway. I mean think about it, if you’re going to wreck a man, don’t make him walk, please give him a ride.
In all seriousness, while I can laugh at that, the whole thing really is sad. I have talked to NASCAR, and if you call that your mecca of short track racing and allow racing like that to go on, it’s no wonder your ratings are falling. NASCAR is really appalled about the things going on there. Let’s just say it’s still early in the week.
After talking with people from NASCAR, I ask the question, “Why can’t we run it like a NASCAR track?” At South Boston you can’t do stuff like that. At Motor Mile you can’t do stuff like that. At ANY NASCAR sanctioned track you can’t do that. I mean, in your feature division, you don’t even check carbs, come on, it’s a free for all, it’s the wild wild west. It’s been noted before there with the ridiculous stuff going on, all we did was escalate it more and send it around the world. There are just no rules, it’s really sad. They have their product on the table.
You know I was telling someone today, I haven’t raced in five or six years and I believe I could take Derek Stoltz in a one on one race for ten laps. I mean, not racing against each other because he would just wreck you, but on the clock I could beat him. He has no rhythm; his rhythm is to use the back of your car for brakes. That doesn’t take very much talent. Every race I’ve won I earned, you’ll never hear somebody say, “Mike Robertson took them out to win a race”. That’s just not who I am and I’m not going to start. I would drop to his level.
You know, there are enough people out there if he continues to drive like that, and he will because he has the “bad boy” image now, somebody will get him in a corner and keep ramming him and ramming him. It’s going to eventually happen.
CL: You did have a fast car though, people are saying you were blocking for your brother.
MR: You know, I’ve heard that to. My car was a little better than Bryant’s car was. But I just couldn’t get around him. I turned him sideways, I bumped him, but I let him save it each time, he gave me the outside I just didn’t take it, that’s what racing is all about, not dumping a guy. I wouldn’t even knock Derek out to win a race; I mean we are racing for a $5 trophy, a dozen doughnuts and $300. If you rub the trophy three times it falls apart. Trust me, I know, I’ve got plenty of them.
CL: So what happens next with the deal from Saturday?
MR: You know Corey, I’m still debating, should I bring six cars or seven? (Rumors were flying that he would have six cars there next week for Stotlz). Really, I went to my trailer and got on my knees and prayed to God I was still alive, that’s what happened “next”.
CL: No, come on now, what happens this weekend?
MR: Me, personally, I don’t think, from my standpoint, it’s in the best interest for me and who I am to race. I have no respect for Derek. You’ve already seen I’m crazy, that really can’t be disputed, and when I get mad, I’m not a very pleasant guy. Plus my body, I mean if you look at the video pretty close, I took a kind of a bad fall to be a 50 year old man. I got up but I was hurting (laughing). I’m not telling anybody what I’m doing for the simple fact that I really don’t know yet. I will tell you I won’t do Derek like he did my brother, I have more respect for life than that. What kind of person would that say I am? And for what? A $5 trophy you rub three times and it falls apart? Quote me on this … I’ll take a clean second over a dirty first any day of the week.
I can sit back and laugh at this, if you can laugh at yourself your good. I’m not mad at Derek because I know who he is and I know what he’s about. He’s not the type of racer that can go anywhere else, he’s a Bowman Gray racer and that’s it, he’s stuck there for the rest of his life. He can’t race anywhere else because other tracks wouldn’t put up with his crap.
Derek Stoltz
And finally we have Derek Stoltz. Derek managed an impressive feat Saturday coming from dead last, 19th, in the first race to win in 20 laps. Then he came from 12th in the second race to pull off the double, a feat that has only been done a few times in the last 30 years. But as you know, it wasn’t without controversy. Derek was a tad more blunt in his views to me.
Corey Latham: So what’s going on?
Derek Stoltz: Just working on the car, heard I got probation today so we’ll see how everything goes.
CL: Well on that note, in your eyes what happened to start this? It looked like Mike was blocking for his brother or was he?
DS: Yeah, he was. That’s what started this whole thing. He was blocking for his brother and I had a car to win, to win twins, it hasn’t been done since like Jimmy Johnson did it like in ‘92. It wasn’t the cleanest deal, I can say that but it is what it is. And him grabbing onto my car? People keep saying that I darted at him. Yeah, I darted at him trying to get around his brother in front of me stopped and him coming at me, I didn’t know what they were going to do.
CL: Did you know he grabbed hold of it?
DS: Hell no, not until the spotter yelled “stop, stop, stop”. About that time I just saw arms and legs flying by. I’m not proud of that. I’m glad he’s ok, I don’t want anyone hurt.
The thing with Bryant, well I was coming down the backstretch and I went to the outside and he cut up and I cut in, it was 50/50 to me, I’m not going to say it was his fault or my fault. It was messed up racing is what it was.
CL: It looked really bad, and even worse on video.
DS: I know it did. You have to realize who I was racing against though. Honestly, Mike is the best driver out of Ryan (his son) or Bryant. Mike had a better car than Bryant, if he would have passed him, he would have won and we would of finished second.
It is what it is, it’s a show and it’s Bowman Gray. I hear they are bringing all these cars which is fine. If my probation allows me, if they want to take care of business I’ll take care of business also. Other than that I’m coming to win the damn race.
CL: Well happens if they do something and you’re on probation like you say?
DS: Well I guess I’ll have to take it a step further. Now if Mike or Bryant bring their cars and do something that’s different, but if they bring these other guys like I’ve been hearing and they want to wait on me and do something, by God they are going to have to get a new car, all there is to that. That’s plain and simple.
CL: I’m hearing rumors that Ryan Robertson might be in the car Mike was in, just rumor right now.
DS: That’s all fine and good, Ryan or whoever it is, if they want to come in there and play games they are going to learn they are in my damn house. They want to wreck cars, well we are building one right now. I’m not playing all that with people bringing cars.
CL: What happened to the calm and cool Derek Stoltz? You seem to be more aggressive this year.
DS: That was the point racing Derek Stoltz. This is the….I want to win races Derek Stoltz. Nothing less, nothing more. I’m not just going to ride behind a guy that thinks he should win because he drew up front for the second race. I watched Junior Miller do that for years, I’m racing every race to win. Hell they were all mad the other night. Taylor Branch said I drove him like crap; people were kicking my car coming through the pits. I guess Taylor got mad because they put that new body on the car and I put a scratch on it the first time I passed him.
CL: Yeah the consensus is that quite a few drivers are not happy with what happened Saturday night.
DS: Well if they weren’t involved then I don’t see why. If they are, I guess it’s fair game on me. I’m going to bring the heat and be good with it. I don’t have a bone in my body that’s worried about anything or anyone over there. I got a modified to drive, if my car gets tore up we might just drive that. We’ve been planning to do that anyway.
CL: So, do you regret anything that happened the other night?
DS: I regret he grabbed my bar or whatever he did and that’s it, nothing else. They want to block, well they got what they got. Maybe we both learned a lesson from that. Hopefully he learned not to grab onto a moving race car and I learned when my spotter yells STOP, to stop.
CL: You know I told you the other night right after it happened, I didn’t agree with what happened but I respect your views and your reasoning, you know I shoot you straight. The more I think about it though, is it so much as what the drivers do as it is what you’re allowed to get away with?
DS: It’s a show man, it’s the Madhouse. I mean, they made a TV show about it. We all know the consequences when we get there, we know we are part of the show, we aren’t going to get paid much and we are going to tear stuff up. Like I said, if Bryant or Mike tear me up, so be it, maybe I deserve it, who knows, but if they bring someone else to do it, game on, probation don’t mean **** to me.
CL: Does it bother you at all that what happened overshadows the feat you pulled off, I mean winning the double from last in one race and 12th in the other in 20 lappers is pretty impressive.
DS: No, not at all, I’ve got the trophies, we know what we did. It won’t be in the history books, it’ll never be in the program but I know we did it, my team knows we did and the guys we race against know we did it. It doesn’t bother me at all. I’ll be there this week and I’ll be at Saturday morning practice too. If anything happens, we’ll deal with it. I’ve won five races this year and I’m going this weekend to win number six, that’s all I’m worried about.
