Annabeth Barnes did not pick up her first career win on the eve of her 20th birthday but, after the accident she walked away from, she is grateful just to be alive and uninjured.
The scary frightening ordeal took place on the final lap of Saturday night’s Late Model Stock Car race at Hickory Motor Speedway when a crash involving her and Matt Piercy ended with Piercy’s tire literally being on top of her head. Following the wreck, it took several minutes to get Barnes out of her car because of Piercy’s car being on top of her car.
Barnes talked to RACE22.com about the incident, which, according to her, was preceded by an incident with Piercy.
“So, basically, on the last lap, we had already gotten the white flag, I was running fifth and Matt Piercy was running fourth and he had engine trouble and started blowing up,” Barnes said. “He had been for a couple laps. It was at the very end of the race. He got right in the middle of the track and blocking me I was faster. Everywhere I went, he was blocking me. We were going through one and two and his motor gave up, I got into him, he spun out. I barely touched him and he went right around. There was a caution. They sent me to the back for that. There were only six cars on the lead lap so it wasn’t life or death. We restarted fifth.”
It was during that green-white-checkered finish that things developed. Dexter Canipe, Jr. checked up, Barnes lifted and, the next thing she knew, she has Piercy’s car on top of her head.
“On that restart, it was a green-white-checkered,” Barnes continued. “Dexter Jr was in front of me and he kind of, through three and four, he checked up, I checked up and I didn’t see it happen because I was racing but, from what everyone has told me, when I checked up, he slammed on the gas and climbed on top of me and didn’t let off until we hit the wall. He was on the rev limiter. It was very intentional and it was unfortunate.”
Piercy also talked about the accident, saying his car was down a cylinder in the closing laps and that his contact with Barnes late in the race was not intentional.
“With about 15 to go, a spark plug wire burned up so I was down a cylinder and I was just trying to make it to the end,” Piercy said. “She caught me and couldn’t get around me. I knew she was faster since I was down a cylinder. Once we got there with five to go, I moved to the middle and bottom so she could go to the top to get by me without any issue. I’m not sure why she didn’t take advantage of that. I gave her the outside for quite a few laps. She looked up there and came right back to the bottom. She got in the back of me there and I went around. No big deal.
“Them we had a restart, there were six cars on the lead lap. We restarted, getting down into three, the restart closed everybody up and we were all in a wad. Shane and Landon got sideways. Canipe got sideways. It looked like she got in the back of him, which that was a product of everybody checking up when the leaders got loose. I was on her bumper, not touching her. When she got into him, she checked up and I was at her left rear tire and my right front hooked on her left rear and it just launched me up.”
The way Piercy described the incident, and the way his car launched upon contact with Barnes, is reminiscent to an incident between Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves in a morning warm-up session ahead of the Inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix (2011) in Baltimore, Maryland.
“I did everything I could to get off of her,” Piercy explained. “It was by no means intentional. It was hard racing on a green-white-checkered. We were all in such a wad when they checked up that it all happened so fast there. Once I got up on her, I did everything I could to get off of her and I couldn’t and we came to a stop. The main thing there is that everybody is okay. I hate that happened. Hopefully we can get fixed there and move on.”
Safety crews struggled to get Piercy’s car off from on top of Annabeth Barnes. Fortunately, they were able to do so and Barnes was able to walk away without serious injury. Barnes realizes it could have been much worse.
“His tire was on top of my head,” Barnes remarked. “I feel like it was way worse than what the picture has shown. I was pinned into my car. I have tire marks on my helmet. When they pulled his car off of mine, it lifted my helmet off my head so the tire was literally attached to my helmet. It was really scary for sure. They couldn’t figure out how to get the car off, they pushed it and it pushed me into my seat. It was scary. We’re lucky there wasn’t a fire or anything. That could have been really bad.”
Barnes said the incident was very scary and, while she was uninjured, she was sore after the incident.
“Everyone who’s seen the pictures that was there, the initial impact, his car was pointed straight in the air,” Barnes said. “He had come to rest in the picture. It was definitely one of the scariest wrecks I’ve ever been in. I was very sore. The worst of it was the initial impact; my left leg got tangled up in the pedal. I was sore, had a headache, nowhere near as bad as it maybe should have been. It could have been a lot worse. I was like ‘happy birthday to me’. It was rough.”
In regards to Barnes walking away from the incident, Piercy praised NASCAR for the safety initiatives and guidelines put forth by the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.
“You’ve got to give a shout out to NASCAR for giving us the guidelines to make these cars as safe as they do because, you hate to see something like that happen but it’s a testament to the things they have done.”
While Barnes is okay, physically, her car was destroyed. Fortunately, that will not keep the now 20-year-old out of the cockpit. She says the KHM Motorsports team has another care ready to go and she will race again in a couple of weeks.
“That car is pretty well destroyed,” Barnes commented. “We had to take the rear clip out of it to get it in the trailer. We have another car. It’s going to Hedgecock tomorrow and we’ll be back in a couple weeks.”
While there’s no doubt Barnes would have liked to have picked up her first career Late Model Stock Car victory on the eve of her 20th birthday, she did live to see, and race, another day.
