LUCAMA, NC :: Haley Moody knows the championship still isn’t over yet with four races remaining in the Limited Late Model division at Southern National Motorsports Park, but the decision to overturn her disqualification from Saturday night’s race puts her championship destiny back in her own hands.
Moody entered Saturday night’s race with an insurmountable points advantage but, after her car weighed in too light during postrace technical inspection, her points lead stood to be completely erased and the championship would have become out of reach for the 19-year-old driver. However, after Moody called the track’s rules and enforcement of those rules in to question, the track felt compelled to overturn their disqualification.
“I felt that once all the facts were gathered and looked over, the right decision would be made,” Moody told RACE22.com on Thursday afternoon.
Moody, who was surprised over the track’s decision to reverse the disqualification, now enters the final four races of the season with a large points lead, around 38, over Dillon Spain, but she knows the championship isn’t over yet.
“We’re going to have to go out there and do the best we can,” Moody said. “It’s not over with. We still have four races left. Anything can happen. We’ll go out there and do our best.”
As relieved as Haley Moody was, Dillon Spain was not.
“The same situation happened earlier this year in the legends division and a driver was disqualified for 2.3 pounds and 40 pounds is a lot more than that,” Spain said, relaying information he received from his crew. “The track did what they had to do and I get that, but, all I know is underweight is underweight. If someone’s going to get disqualified for 2.3 pounds, if you’re light, you’re light.”
Knowing the math does not work in his favor, Spain said he’d approach the rest of the season the same way he has all season.
“We’ll keep working like we have all year,” Spain said. “If the championship comes to us, it comes.”
In their statement announcing that they had been compelled to overturn the disqualification, Southern National Motorsports Park stated, “We believe it is the responsibility of the track to ensure a fair set of rules that encourages good competition is made available, enforced, and to ensure every competitor is treated fairly. In this case we found there was no clear written interpretation of the rule and the rule was being enforced differently by different Officials throughout the year. Therefore, the disqualification is overturned and the results from both races will stand as posted.”
The Limited Late Models will be in action in twin races on Friday night, September 12th and Saturday night, September 13th with twin races both nights.
