2018 AERS Race 6 - South Boston (Dodge 250)

Top: Smith, Lester
Flop: Latinger, Rodin, Jugar

Lester dejected after caution during pit cycle, settles for 14th

Adding insult to a foot injury suffered at Boston, New York driver Casey Lester continues to experience inconsistency in his results in the AMP Energy Rackng Series. After making a tremendous drive from 39th on the grid, Lester pit early just before the third caution flew for Madison Vermette being spun around. This saw himself, Tyler Deefer, Shawn Glossum and others get trapped one or more laps down to the leaders who did not pit before the yellow came out. Lester managed to salvage a 14th place finish and pass race winner Nate Smith in the last two corners, but it provided no comfort for a potential Top 5 run that went away.

"Just sucks," Lester dejectedly told the small media scrum after the race. "Always seems to happen to us. We really felt confident despite how upset we were this morning. Qualifying did not give us answers with the setup, but we changed some things around and found something that really worked. This Dunkin' Donuts Ford was a rocket ship and the leaders cost us a great finish."

Lester, ironically, drops to 14th in points with his 14th place finish. He did not seem vocal beyond that quote and understandably went back to his hauler soon after he was finished receiving questions.


Madison Vermette Frustrated with Winner Nate Smith

During green flag pit stops, Madison Vermette in his #01, leading the race, slowed in turn 2 to make his way into the pits. As he slowed, he was turned by eventual winner Nate Smith. Vermette argued to his team via radio communications saying that he had his hand out of the window signaling a pit stop. He was very vocal to his team who tried to explain the situation more clearly. Vermette only had this to offer:

"I'm not really sure what was so hard to understand about that hand signal. I did it in turn 4 and again in [turn] 1 and that idiot still ran me over. The replay doesn't show it justice, we had the best car along with him and [Casey] Lester, and we're going to get screwed out of the victory."

With the finish, Vermette moves up a league-best 14 spots in the standings to 18th. After a few frustrating DNF's for engine failures, Madison Vermette is looking to rebound his poor start, and looks to be doing so. Vermette, a rookie, is also chasing Caine Dwyer in 2nd for the rookie of the year title. Dwyer was docked 25 points prior to the race, but finished a spot behind Vermette in 3rd.


Dwyer Finishes 3rd After Inconsistent Night

With 25 points being docked from his point total coming into the race, rookie Caine Dwyer knew he had to finish well enough to where it wouldn't hurt him too much. Despite the whole racing world seemingly against him, accusing him of cheating and bending the rules after his #10 Chevy failed post-race inspection, he came out to South Boston and drove through the field to finish a solid 3rd place. Dwyer and teammate Zach McRae mirrorred eachother essentially all race long, rarely getting trapped in the much weaker high-groove, and cruising their way up through the field. Dwyer was pretty satisfied with his performance:

"Yeah, it's been kind of a pressing week. It's dragged on and we just wanted to escape this short track with a decent finish. The guys gave me a great car again and we just knew we had something special after climbing up to the top-10 before the halfway mark. Was a fun race, really is a good feeling."(edited)
Teammate Zach McRae said, "After the kind of career I've had, just kind of being a journeyman, I'm really just relieved to be running this well. The team has stepped up in a big way, and you're starting to see the kind of damage this team can do now. It's really fun and I'm glad we're finishing where we are. 8th is a nice step for us. We're just looking to continue to build."


Tipsun Scores Career Best 5th at SoBo

With rumors leaking seemingly from all directions, Jordan Tipsun managed to cut off the noise, at least for this week, and score a top-5 finish in his #18 TGI Chevrolet for Chautier Motorsports. It was a long time coming for Tipsun, who has been kind of an afterthought through most of his AARO career. Tipsun ran very quietly in the top-5 and even the top-3 in the early stages of the race. Surviving the green-flag stops caution that flew, Tipsun found himself solidly in the top-10 late in the running and eventually worked his way to a 5th place finish, right where he began the race. Tipsun was more than pleased in the media center.

"Yeh, I know I'm probably not going to be retained, but that's okay. I'm just out here to prove myself and hopefully convince someone else to believe in me. I've been working hard for a long time and I'm pretty confident I can put a run here together and show I've got what it takes at this level. I believe 100% I'm AERS-capable. Oh and yeah thank you to my team too!"

Smith Responds After Controversial Race
The race weekend was already controversial for its mere existence, as the AARO train left the Philadelphia race weekend midway through. A relocation so rapid qualifying could not be rerun on the new track, and many teams still had setups on the cars best suited for the higher banks of Philadelphia. Despite the rushed nature of the race, after 2 early yellows, the field calmed down quite a bit. About 150 laps of green followed, and it was the 3rd caution of the race that would be the biggest controversy of the race. Leader Madison Vermette appeared to be slowing down to make a pit stop, and 2nd place Nathan Smith got into the rear of the 01 and turned him. Vermette claimed he stuck his hand out the window to indicate prior to making the move. After completing his victory celebration, Smith responded to most questions before they could be asked.

"First off, I want to apologize to everyone that got stuck a lap down by that spin. Especially Casey, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy or a better racecar tonight. And yeah the 01 showed me his hand. That's why I was very surprised that he was still running in the racing line. That was a very late pit entry, to put it lightly. I doubt he was trying anything malicious like trying to hold me and the field up. But in any case, you can't dive into the pits from the middle lane. Its a shame neither me nor him had to face the consequences for that, seeing as how we still finished 1-2. But of course I'm gonna be happy about this win. That incident could've happened to anybody, and he and the field still had like 90 laps to catch me after the restart. It's a shame I couldn't race all those guys who were a lap down. I doubt I could've held off the 87."

Crompton Displeased With AARO Officials
Carson Crompton fell back slowly until almost losing a lap at the relocated Dodge 250 this weekend. However, he recovered and thanks to some good luck and controversy involving his teammate being involved in a yellow during the pit cycle, managed to finish 6th. He now trails Caine Dwyer by 45 points for the season championship lead. He voiced his displeasure with the decision to relocate the race.

"We moved a race because of weather, from a track that has a fucking retractable dome. I swear that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I had the best car at Philly and we literally had no time to fix the setup for this track. It's a miracle I pulled out a 6th."

When it was pointed out that fans and media would've been unable to attend the race, and it was possible the teams could have been trapped in the stadium for several days, Crompton replied:

"We bring plenty of food in our campers and trucks. This is a multi-million dollar business. We can afford to pay for snow plows. It might have sucked to have no fans I'll admit. But not having to deal with the media after a race sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me."

The Riverside, California native may not be familiar with all the trappings involved with a 2-3 foot snowfall event. However, he very clearly has proven his talent on the track, and thus far in outperforming teammate Nathan Smith proves it's not just equipment carrying him. He also congratulated teammate and mentor Nathan Smith for his win

"By the way thanks and congrats to Nate for making it back-to-back. We'll try to make it 3 in a row, at, [he asked where the next race was] Willow Springs, no Willow Point sorry."

Vermette Apoglogizes for Smith Comments

After hearing what Nate Smith had to say about the third caution, where Vermette was turned by the 83, Madison Vermette retracted his statements, saying he’d watched footage and really has an understanding for what had happened.

“Yeah you know what, I was real fired up at the time but now that I have had time to reflect, I take back any hurtful things I may have said. Nate is a hell of a driver and competitor and I respect everything he’s done in this series. The incident can probably be chalked up as a racing deal, I would actually put most of the blame on...I guess myself. Apologies to the 83 team, nice win.”