Controversy Pollutes Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Tri-Country Visit as 16-YO’s Katie Hettinger & Caden Kvapil Spark Pit-Road Brawl

Hours before the highly anticipated NASCAR Cup Series race in Homestead, Miami went underway, tensions were at an all-time high at Tri-County Speedway. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s CARS Tour Series yet again got itself into a sticky situation after a brawl broke out between the teams in the pit area in an embarrassing turn of events.

While it is no rarity to see such fallouts with emotions coming to the surface, things went up a notch as the racing community was shocked to see another throwdown in the veteran’s promotion that was sparked off by a rear right hook on Sunday.

Katie Hettinger: Caden Kvapil tussle turns violent as fists fly in Tri-County Speedway Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s racing series

Now, brawls and fistfights are nothing new in the racing world. Drivers and teams have always collided with themselves face-to-face once things get out of hand on the track. However, that is simply not the way professionals carry themselves around the track. While a one-on-one fistfight broke out between Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson in Kansas, Dale Jr.‘s own promotion, CARS Tours, got the attention for all the wrong reasons.

All it took for the team members to go on a violent spree was an on-track incident involving 16-year-old Caden Kvapil and 15-year-old Katie Hettinger. There were multiple contacts between the two youngsters that led to the final wreck that got Hettinger to the pit lane, which later sparked the brawl.

Coming side by side into turn, both the #61 car of Hettinger and the #96 car of Kvapil made contact as the two raced aggressively. Hettinger was spun out of control into the wall, causing a pileup on the front stretch involving multiple cars. Things then took off from there in a violent turn of events. The #61 driver yearned vengeance when she right-hooked Kvapil’s Late Model car in the rear off of turn 1, sending both drivers for a spin.

While both drivers were sent onto the wall, Kvapil managed to retire his car and continue his race, the #61 car suffered major front-end damages that needed attention which prompted her to head to the pit area.

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Tempers get out of hand as the community witnesses another ugly confrontation

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For one, there’s no question that was an embarrassing moment for the sport. The immaturity of the drivers and their respective teams was enough to bring shame to the Stock car racing promotion. The two drivers lacked what the drivers in NASCAR or for that matter any series possess – professionalism.

And the sequence of the events also exposed the teams’ intentions to confront one another. Team members watched the action unfold on the track closely and were in near proximity to each other. The final tangle off of turn 1 sealed the deal as the teams got into each other faces quite literally punching each other and body-slamming one another into the concrete.

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What do you think about the whole debacle? Isn’t it high time that promotions step in and start taking matters into their own hands to put a stop to such unethical manners? Let us know your comments below.