RALEIGH, NC :: Alex Fleming scored the victory in Saturday night’s Super Late Model special at Wake County Speedway after a controversial restart, leaving Jody Measamer miffed with track officials. Measamer claimed Fleming jumped the final restart.
The controversial restart happened after a wreck took out Preston Peltier and a couple of other contenders. Fleming restarted in the second position with only three cars and four laps left in the race. Measamer says Fleming jumped the restart while Fleming claimed Measamer spun his tires. Fleming held off Measamer to score the victory.
After the race, Measamer protested the results but Fleming’s win stood.
“I was very upset,” Measamer told RACE22.com. “So here’s the deal. We had a good car and I fell to the back at the start of the race, rode and tried to save. About 25 to go, we went, got up to there and Fleming and Peltier down. Preston and Fleming wrecked and got taken out. I come through as the leader. We’ve got four laps to go. Wake County has the cone restarts so I choose inside and, at that time, Joe Heigl was second. He chose to go to the inside. Fleming worked on his car on the red flag, got back out and chose the outside. I’m not upset at Alex one bit because he had nothing to lose. I’m upset with the track.”
Measamer then explained his side of the story.
“They say the leader starts the race. They’ve got lines painted on the wall like any other track. Leader can go when he gets to the first line. If he doesn’t go by the second line, flagman starts the race. I’ve never went as soon as I get to the line. I try to change up. I rolled up in the box and as soon as we get in the box, Fleming, he freaking goes. I was like holy damn. He had me by a few lengths before we got to the restart line. We were flagged second. I ran him down and got back to him on the last lap, I just could not get to him.”
After the race, Measamer congratulated Fleming, saying he had no problems with Fleming and said Fleming did what he had to do to win the race.
Race winner Alex Fleming had a different version of events.
“We’re really excited that everything worked out. We normally have things go the other way for us so this is special that things have worked in our favor,” Fleming said in reference to the decision by Wake County officials and in reference to a disqualification a few weeks prior to Saturday’s race. “I believe that I could hear him spin his tires and there’s a video someone posted and you can hear him take off and spin the tires. That restart didn’t win the race because he was beside me in turns one and two anyways.”
Track promoter Adam Resnick defended the decision in an interview with RACE22.com.
“I got my guys in the tower and all of our officials there and they watch the restarts very closely,” Resnick explained. “There are four laps to go and, according to them, the restart was very close and they said Alex might’ve had a two foot advantage at most and they nose-to-nose going in to turn one. With three laps to go, they’re not going to call that as a jumped start. Alex has a 603 Crate Engine and Jody has a big motor so we don’t know who got going or if tires spun. What do you do in a situation like that?”
Resnick also commented on the carnage that took place in the race, saying he hated to see so many cars get torn up.
“I hate that a bunch of cars got tore up,” Resnick said. “I hate that. One thing I take so much pride in at my racetrack is we don’t tear cars up. Those supers are carrying so much more speed at the end of the straightaway and when something happens, it’s so much harder to get wowed up.”
Despite the controversy, Measamer says he has no problems with Adam Resnick and considers him a friend. Resnick also spoke positively of Measamer and his sponsor, AquaVapor, who Resnick says are huge supporters of the racetrack and the race that was held on Saturday night.
“Jody’s the man and Aqua Vapor’s a big track supporter. They sponsored the race. I hate that he feels like the call wasn’t the right call… We don’t play favorites here and you hate that a call goes against your big sponsor, track supporter and friend.”
Video of the controversial restart was posted on Facebook by Amanda Eatman and can be seen below:
