Bowman Gray Breaks Out at Gas City, Nationwide
Overshadowing a stellar open night of Indiana Sprint Week that saw the highest car count for ISW’s opening event since 2014 and a feature decided by Shane Cottle stealing the lead from Justin Grant on a green-white-checkered finish was the dropkick heard ‘round the world after CJ Leary went after Robert Ballou.
It has been a wild night at @GasCitySpeedway @USACNation @CJ_Leary_ @robertballou81 pic.twitter.com/q6K7VlY7xB
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) July 23, 2022
To put it in context, Ballou and Leary made contact on the exit of turn 4, sending Leary’s machine into a violent tumble that saw his tail tank separate from the chassis. It was an ugly night for Ballou, who was called out both by Cottle and Grant in their victory lane interviews and who also involved in another red-flag incident when he got out of shape on the backstretch and swiped into Brady Bacon, sending that car flipping as well.
The Bacon incident was nasty and entirely Ballou’s fault. Having watched the replay of Ballou/Leary a half-dozen times, I’m still not convinced it wasn’t just a racing incident.
But even if Ballou was entirely at fault for the Leary incident, there’s no justifying Leary’s actions in drop-kicking a man who’s completely restrained and unable to defend himself within a racecar. It was fitting that Leary landed on his ass trying to play Karate Kid, because someone should have been there to put him on said ass for acting such a, well, ass.
And while this incident would not prove to have a lasting impact on Indiana Sprint Week, it is part of a behavioral problem that is becoming epidemic in sprint car racing.
The same Friday (July 22) that saw this incident occur saw a similar incident happen in the World of Outlaws race at Williams Grove Speedway, where Freddie Rahmer attacked Danny Dietrich in his racecar on pit road after the two tangled in a heat race.
Fred Rahmer going after Danny Dietrich 😳😳😳
pic.twitter.com/OyIxnXgQY3— Historical Sprint Car Racing (@SprintCarHist) July 23, 2022
And there was also the incident back in the spring that saw Logan Wagner take shots at a strapped-in Anthony Macri under a red flag at Port Royal Speedway after an on-track incident.
USAC, and any other sanctioning body hosting sprint car races, has got to get this nonsense under control. Attacking drivers that are in full safety restraints should be a no-no just on general principle, but it’s…
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