HAMPTON, Ga. – The NASCAR Xfinity Series race was running as regularly as most races do at the newly repaved Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 18.
Well, at least it was for the first 34 laps.
For on lap 35, to the bewilderment of many, series full-time driver Josh Williams brought his No. 92 DGM Racing Chevrolet to a halt on the 1.5-mile speedway’s start/finish line while under caution. Seconds later, he took his helmet off, climbed out of the car, waved to the crowd and walked across the infield grass while cars were still on track.
In case you couldn’t tell from the tones of both veteran FOX Sports commentator Adam Alexander and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano‘s voices, it was a type of protest unlike most of the even most hardened racing fans have seen in NASCAR.
Williams, a 29-year-old Floridian, was ordered to park his Chevrolet after a piece of tape the team had placed on the car from being involved in the previous incident fell off during the caution period. According to the NASCAR Xfinity Series rule book in section 8.8.9.I, NASCAR officials can park a team if they have extended a caution period as a result of insufficient repairs.
“At the discretion of the Series Managing Director, if a damaged vehicle elects not to enter pit road on the first opportunity or if a damaged vehicle exits pit road before sufficient repairs had been made and thereafter causes or extends a caution, then said vehicle may incur a lap or time penalty or may not be permitted to return to the Race.”
Williams believed that his car was still undamaged enough to be competitive.
“I mean we just pushed the nose in right by the headlight,” said Williams about the damage. “It wasn’t too bad. We got the hood back down, and we got everything taped up real good, and I didn’t think we were going to have the issue. I would say if it was old Atlanta, we would have been struggling the rest of the day. But now, you know, being able to draft and everything, I think we would have been fine, and as long as we could have survived, we could have a decent finish today.”
Naturally, he was frustrated with the call that parked him. The result is history.
“We all work really hard, right?” said Williams later on. “And to only run the X amount of laps, and then have something like a piece of their bond fall off and put us out of the race is really frustrating, you know? [We’re a] small team. We…
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