MYRTLE BEACH, SC :: Emotions got sour between Trent Barnes and Adam Resnick in Saturday night’s Southeast Limited Late Model (SELLM) Challenger feature at Myrtle Beach Speedway. It was Barnes who would go on to win the race after Resnick was parked for an on-track altercation between the two.
Barnes, 14, qualified on the pole and led the race wire-to-wire leading up to the on-track altercation with Resnick. On a restart with eight laps to go, Resnick got a jump while Barnes did not get going. That resulted in a pileup behind Barnes and Resnick. Resnick was warned about jumping the restart. On the ensuing restart, Resnick rocketed to the lead on the outside but the two made contact, relegating Resnick to third and allowing Barnes to hold the lead as the caution came out.
Under the caution, Resnick turned Barnes in turn one. Track officials immediately parked Resnick, who had come all the way from the rear of the field after failing post-qualifying technical inspection, for his actions. With his main competition sidelined, Barnes was able to cruise to his first career Limited Late Model victory.
“That was a little bit unnecessary,” Barnes said of the incident with Resnick. “I had my line and he cut down on me a little bit so, didn’t mean to do it if it was my fault. It was good hard racing.”
Resnick said he had the car to beat and felt he would’ve won the race if not for the contact with Barnes.
“When you don’t have the car that can win, sometimes you have to do stuff and he wanted to wreck me and see if he could win. If 14-year-olds can’t make good decisions, that’s why they shouldn’t be racing with the adults. That’s what go-karts are for.”
Resnick also said the contact with Barnes under the lap 41 caution was intentional.
“The flat tire, you know what, I hit him on purpose, I ain’t going to lie,” Resnick remarked. “Everybody wants to lie about it. I hit the kid and I’m telling you, it’s one of those things. It ain’t a big deal.”
In spite of leading wire-to-wire, Barnes said he saved his tires up until the closing laps when he ran away from the rest of the field to score the win.
“It was a bunch of everything. Had to save the tires, make sure we didn’t spin them too much and ride around for the first 30 laps and get going on the last 20… It’s my first career win so it’s more special at Myrtle Beach Speedway here.”
Chris Phipps went on to finish in the second position while Bryant Barnhill finished third and Allen Huffman finished fourth.
A late race battle for the fifth position also generated hurt feelings. Dillon Houser passed Marcus Lambert for the fifth position but had to fend off a challenge from a hard charging Taylor Nesbitt. Nesbitt ended up getting around Houser on the last lap, leaving Houser upset with her driving style.
“Some of these monkeys out here, they forget they got to race again tomorrow,” Houser commented. “It’s just not worth battling for $100 there at the end and getting pushed all around, it’s not worth it. I want to come back and race again tomorrow. I mean, we can play that game all day long but I want to come back and race.”
Nesbitt had started the race in the 15th position, three spots behind Houser, and mounted a late race charge – working her way from 13th to fifth in the final eight laps.
“We’re really excited to come back and finished fifth in a 25 car field,” Nesbitt said. “I figured out my line pretty well.”
Marcus Lambert went on to finish seventh while Adam Congrove, Justin Fontaine and Andrew Cordell rounded out the top-10.
Unofficial Results
1. #1 Trent Barnes
2. #37 Chris Phipps
3. #5B Bryant Barnhll
4. #25H Allen Huffman
5. #92N Taylor Nesbitt
6. #11 Dillon Houser
7. #5L Marcus Lambert
8. #19 Adam Congrove
9. #60 Justin Fontaine
10. #33C Andrew Cordell
11. #11W Ed Williams
12. #97 Sean Gartner
13. #22M Dan Moore
14. #44K Michael Kitchen
15. #63 Chris Throckmorton
16. #24 Jackie Ward
17. #22B Greg Bohanon
18. #07H Hayan Humphrey
19. #78 Ricky Gillespie
20. #88H Alex Hicks
21. #76 Ian Isringhauser
22. #77 Garrett Marchant
23. #4R Adam Resnick
24. #22T Jason Tutterow
25. #33J JJ June
