It was a wild, chaotic, and dirty afternoon for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which began with the entirety of the race’s first stage being run on wet weather tires.
After a long-winded 67 laps at the 2.258-mile road course in Lexington, Ohio, tempers were running quite high in the garage, especially amongst those who finished in the mid-field.
TobyChristie.com’s Ben Branscum spoke to Ryan Vargas, driver of the No. 30 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for On Point Motorsports in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 150, to discuss his race, which started on a slick track.
“This was my third [time racing in the rain], but it looked like my first. That was the slickest track I’ve been on in my entire life and I raced the ROVAL in the rain, I raced Portland in the rain, and not nearly as bad.”
Finishing 23rd, Vargas also had some strong comments toward the other drivers in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series field and the blatant lack of respect shown on-track this afternoon – in both the adverse and non-adverse conditions.
“You have kids who are under 18 years old going out there and driver through you – and they’re two, three laps down – for no freaking reason. Just, there is no respect at all,” Vargas said after the race.
“We should have finished a lot higher. We had a truck better than where we finished,” he continued. “We tore up a perfectly good race truck because guys don’t know how to drive their car straight… it stinks.”
He wasn’t the only one who held some frustration with the field. Spencer Boyd, who finished 25th after getting stuck in the gravel trap mid-race, also had some thoughts on the lack of respect, which he told TobyChristie.com’s Taylor Kitchen.
“I mean, road courses in general are just really edgy and people are getting into each other,” Boyd said. “Guys kind of use road courses to get back at people. The racing in general can be more aggressive, so you start seeing those wrecks.”
According to TobyChristie.com’s Incident Tracker, there were at least 42 different incidents over the course of the 67-lap contest, in which Ryan Vargas and Spencer Boyd were collected in at least one. The event featured 10 cautions for 23 laps.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will take a much-needed off-week, before traveling to Pocono Raceway for the CRC Brakeleeen 150, the penultimate event of the regular season.
