Earlier during a Southern Nationals Series late model race at the I-75 Speedway, there was a big incident. For a bit of context, Mack McCarter and Ashton Winger were battling for the race lead. McCarter was driving the #51 car and Winger was in the #22 car. The former was leading and Winger kept attacking for the race lead. Unfortunately, there was a huge crash, and many fans, including former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace, were angry.
OH MY 😳. https://t.co/7j27lshXLh
— Kenny Wallace (@Kenny_Wallace) July 20, 2022
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Of course, McCarter was not going to surrender the lead so easily, so he attempted to defend. However, it was his defense methods that many fans called into question. Apparently, McCarter kept trying to run his rival off the track on multiple occasions. In the last attempt, he succeeded in running Winger off the track and the #22 car flipped a few times.
Me and the 51 would be throwing hands.
— Car Hartt (@Carhartt4321) July 20, 2022
Winger was not a fan of being doored every time he made the pass pic.twitter.com/KYUkb80H8W
— Work Area (@The_Work_Area) July 20, 2022
Looked to me as he did the same move multiple laps and he cleared him each time. Now the last one he wasn’t clear but lets not forget dirt track drivers do not have spotters. So when he made the moves earlier did the 22 lift or did he never lift and this time they came together?
— JMac71 (@mcconnell_jeff) July 20, 2022
He didn’t clear him every lap. He ran him off the track in the same spot a couple laps before. Then runs him off the track on the front stretch a couple times before doing this.
— Leisure Chris (@WhoDat15c) July 20, 2022
All racing has become win at all costs. Sooner or later it's gonna start getting some of our stars killed.
— Bob 🐘🧻🌊🌊🔔 (@BobBQue88) July 20, 2022
Once the race was over, a furious Ashton Winger stormed over to pick a fight with McCarter over his questionable tactics. Once the video clip of the battle went viral, it seemed that many fans agreed with Winger. Among them was former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace, whose response was simply, ‘Oh my!’.
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What did the NASCAR fans say about McCarter’s stunt?
A few people observed that Mack McCarter performed the same tactic every time. Winger hadn’t cleared him in the last attempt and paid for it dearly. Others argued that the #51 car did not clear the #22 at all, but blatantly ran him off the track. Some people also made a general observation about racing as a whole, where drivers are trying to win at all costs. They were worried that sooner or later, such antics could kill someone.
I fear in the next 2 years we're gonna have a fatality in the Truck Series, between that & the safety team being really bad at responding multiple times in the past few years.
— Ultimate23Dragon (@Ultimat23Dragon) July 20, 2022
No. Getting ran off of the track down into a ditch led to the bad wreck. The poor run off design of the track assisted with the wreck being so bad.
— BJ Holcomb (@SigMeSeymour) July 20, 2022
I seen hard racing he was squeezing him up did just run and knock him off the 22 could have back out and try get under him .. and my only thing is track with no wall and a deep in cline on other side isn't safe either put up wall or flatten out the the back side of the track
— James Minor (@jamesminor88) July 20, 2022
I'd have parked him 2 races, could have seriously hurt that driver, and the commentator made it seem like 22 went off track like it was his fault
— Dave (@davidcouvier) July 20, 2022
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Running a guy off the track over and over isn't racing.
— Dabosw (@Dabosw) July 20, 2022
On a similar vein, a few have observed that the safety teams have become too slow in their response.
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One person even tweeted, “I fear in the next 2 years we’re gonna have a fatality in the Truck Series, between that & the safety team being really bad at responding multiple times in the past few years“. Others insisted that McCarter should have been suspended for a race or two for such dangerous moves.
