MARTNSVILLE, VA – With just hours remaining before the start of the heat races at Martinsville Speedway, a change to the rules for cars running the Harrington Enforcer engine has been implemented.

Lynn Carroll announced in the driver’s meeting that cars running the Harrington Enforcer engine would have to add 30 pounds of weight to their cars, 15 pounds on each side.  Earlier, Carroll informed teams of the change, and had initially also taken the spacer plate away, but concerns over throttle response from drivers prompted Carroll to continue to allow the spacer plate.

“Teams were talking about issues with the throttle and the last thing we want to do is cause any safety issue,” Martinsville Speedway public relations director Brooks Taylor told Race22.com.  “Safety for everybody is our number one priority at Martinsville Speedway.”

The top nine cars in qualifying on Friday night were running the Harrington Enforcer engine, which was ultimately Carroll’s reasoning for making the change.  He had toyed with adding weight to the cars running Harrington motors before qualifying but left the decision up to the drivers who ultimately voted against the change.  That came after an earlier change on Friday also designed at enhancing competition.

“We constantly are looking at what we can do to make the most competitive field,” Taylor elaborated.  “Something that, in this situation, typically we have practice Wednesday the week before.  We have time to look at things and make changes.  Then we’re supposed to have practice Thursday.  We had weather issues with both of those, one due to the hurricane and one due to weather at the track.  So we had a limited amount of time but we make the best decision we can with what we have to work with.”

Bobby McCarty, a Nelson Motorsports driver who will start at the rear of the field in his heat race after failing post-qualifying tech, was outspoken both about his penalty and the rules change on Saturday morning.  The CARS Response Energy Tour points leader ultimately said the qualifying penalty and the rules changes gave him a greater appreciation for the series he has run in all season long.

“I’m tired of this deal,” McCarty told Race22.com.  “They do stuff by the seam of their pants.  They have no idea what they’re doing and it’s frustrating that the drivers have to pay for it.  Now this whole weight deal and everything else man, it really makes you appreciate Jack McNelly and Chris Ragle and everybody with the CARS Tour because they have their stuff so much more together and organized and they don’t pull stuff out of their hat and say ‘let’s try this today.’  They test it, tune it, get it right and leave it at that.  It’s definitely going to be an interesting heat race.”

“We had a tighter window to work with this year,” Taylor stated.  “We have changes every year.  This year they’re just more noticeable because we had a smaller window to make them.”

Heat races for the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 will get underway at 3pm and the feature race will get underway at 8pm.