Paul Tracy once again raised the ire of Ken Schrader, and his fellow competitors in the Camping World SRX Series Thursday night at Pulaski County Motorsports Park. On Lap 89 of the 100 lap main event, Tracy went wide on the exit of Turn 4, and slammed into the side of Josef Newgarden’s No. 2 car.
The contact sent Tracy spinning across the track, where he collected several other drivers including Schrader and Hailie Deegan. After the latest crash, Tracy was very unapologetic in his post-crash interview on ESPN.
“I mean, Newgarden and I were bouncing off each other for a couple of laps. I got a nose ahead of him, a half a car length ahead of him, and I just got hooked and turned sideways on the straightaway,” Tracy said after climbing from his wrecked No. 3 car. “Just hard racing at the end there. 10 laps to go, and everybody was going for it hard.”
It was the latest in a continuing trend of Tracy serving as the bad guy in the SRX Series. However, unlike Tracy’s wild on-track antics in the past in SRX, the sanctioning body determined that what transpired on Thursday night went over the line.
On Friday, SRX Racing announced that it will be handing Tracy an immediate suspension from the series. The statement from the SRX Series did not indicate how long the suspension would be, but Tracy will for sure not compete in the next event at Berlin Raceway.
Here is the full statement on the matter from the Camping World SRX Series CEO Don Hawk:
“We take issues regarding driver safety extremely seriously at SRX. This is not a decision we take lightly. It is our responsibility to ensure that we foster a competitive, and most importantly, a safe racing environment. I have been in contact with Paul directly and we appreciate his cooperation on this matter.”
Following Thursday’s race at Pulaski County, Tracy finds himself in a three-way tie with Brad Keselowski and Bobby Labonte for fourth in the SRX championship standings. He’ll be out of the title race by the end of next week.
