Last-lap incidents lead to post-race chaos for NASCAR Trucks (UPDATED)

By Sep 1, 2013, 9:10 PM EDT
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Tonight’s Advocare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway may be the penultimate race of the Sprint Cup regular season. And it certainly means a lot as the Chase for the Sprint Cup is looming closer.

But that didn’t stop the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series from potentially upstaging tonight’s proceedings in Atlanta with an explosive finish to their race this afternoon at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park road course in Ontario.

On the final lap, young bucks Chase Elliott and Ty Dillon were going at it side-by-side when Elliott went to the inside of Dillon as the two headed for the last corner. Elliott got into Dillon, spun him into the tire barriers, and went on to claim his first career victory in the Trucks.

As you’d expect, things got heated on pit road as Fox Sports cameras caught Elliott and Dillon’s crews engaging in a shouting match. The two drivers also had a confrontation while Elliott was on his way to Victory Lane.

“That’s not how I race and that’s never been how I’ve raced before,” Elliott said according to The Associated Press. “I had a shot. I was up next to Ty and I knew he was going to try and chop me off. I tried to make up the difference…Sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to get to Victory Lane.”

Dillon, who was relegated to a 17th-place result, seemed to vow revenge in due time against the son of former Cup champ Bill Elliott.

“You’ve got to show respect,” Dillon said, per the AP. “I hope he runs Iowa [next week]. He won’t finish the race.”

But that wasn’t all. Not by a long shot.

While Elliott and Dillon were dueling for the win, Max Papis and Mike Skeen also battled for position when the two made contact in the last turn. The incident knocked Papis to sixth at the finish, Skeen to 13th.

But just after Papis completed a post-race TV interview, a woman approached the Italian driver and slapped him in the face. NASCAR.com reports that the woman identified herself as Skeen’s girlfriend.

This isn’t the first time Papis has been involved with slapping. Earlier this season, he whacked a helmet-wearing Billy Johnson in the head following the Nationwide Series’ event at Road America after the two had a run-in with each other during the race.

Perhaps karma decided to come back around today on “Mad Max”? Who knows…

UPDATE (9:10 p.m. ET): Max Papis has now told ESPN’s Marty Smith that the slap he received following today’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ race in Canada dislocated his jaw. To Papis’ credit, he did not retaliate in the post-race incident.

“What do you do? You don’t hit a lady,” Papis told Smith. “I was in disbelief. Complete disbelief. If she would’ve closed her hand, it would have been a bad punch, because she hit me so freaking hard.

“I went to [Skeen] and said, ‘I guess we know who’s the man in the family here, because the guy didn’t even have the [guts] to talk.'”

Ouch.

Ford Mustang GT3 test has Austin Cindric dreaming of Daytona: ‘I want to drive that car’

By Mar 22, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT
Cindric Ford GT3 test
Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
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Austin Cindric wasn’t the “mystery” test driver behind the wheel of the new Ford Mustang GT3 at Sebring International Raceway, but the Team Penske driver desperately wanted to be.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, an amateur sports car driver himself, made the big reveal via a Tuesday tweet that provided the first video evidence of the GT3 Mustang on track.

“I’ve watched the video in question about a million times,” Cindric said Wednesday during a Ford Performance Zoom news conference to promote NASCAR’s first road course weekend of the season at Circuit of the Americas. “Definitely exciting times for sure. I want to drive that car. It suits my experience level and also the relationships that I have.”

Ford will enter the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next season with its GT3 Mustang, entering a two-car factory effort (that will be managed by Multimatic) in GTD Pro and making customer cars available in the GT Daytona category.

That increases the likelihood of seeing more NASCAR drivers crossing over to IMSA. Cindric has been the only full-time Cup driver in the Rolex 24 at Daytona the past two years, but Ford Performance global director Mark Rushbrook has said the GT3 Mustang will provide more opportunities.

Ford has used its GT4 Mustang as a NASCAR driver development tool in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Harrison Burton and Zane Smith combining to win the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“We’re excited about the Next Gen car and the new architecture there and the similarities between that car and GT3 and even GT4 cars,” Rushbrook said at the announcement of the Ford GT3 program in January 2022 at Daytona. “We think it’s a great opportunity and to do be able to do that in a 24-hour race and get NASCAR drivers even more time is something we need to consider taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Given his sports car background, Cindric probably still would be in the Rolex 24 regardless. He has eight IMSA starts since the 2017 season opener at Daytona, racing a Lexus RCF GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT category. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner made his second LMP2 start this year with Rick Ware Racing.

But Cindric’s preference naturally would be in a Ford, particularly with sports car racing enjoying convergence and crossovers in both GT and prototype racing.

“It’s an exciting time in GT racing, just as it is now for prototype racing with a lot of new regulations and manufacturers building new GT3 cars,” he said. “And also the opportunity with WEC (the World Endurance Championship) and Le Mans and how that all lines up for that category of car. It’s definitely an exciting time. I want to be as much of a part of that as possible.”

Though those odds seemingly will increase with multiple Ford entries in the Rolex 24 field next year, Cindric said NASCAR drivers still have to put in the networking to land rides as he has in recent years.

“Now how (the GT3 Mustang) relates to specifically NASCAR drivers and how often they want to be in the Rolex, could it be an influence? Absolutely, as far as the tie-in with the manufacturer,” Cindric said. “But the challenge and the drive and the logistics of getting an opportunity for a race like the Rolex 24 will be just as challenging as it always is to find your one-off ride for the race. At least from my experience, that’s what I still anticipate.”

It turned out the “mystery” test driver wasn’t from NASCAR (Farley revealed the driver to be 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Joey Hand after a fan asked whether it was Joey Logano).

But Cindric believes there could be more Cup drivers — and perhaps himself — behind the wheel of Mustang GT3s in the future.

“There’s definitely more of a pathway than I think there would be before as far as Ford drivers are concerned,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to drive that thing. It’s obviously a great looking car. That’s the first box you’ve got to check. And it’s cool (to have) a guy like Jim Farley, no doubt he’s a racer just as much as he is steering the ship for Ford. It’s cool to see he’s just as excited as the rest of us about it.”