After a wild Saturday night of racing at Hickory Motor Speedway, which led to a lot of fireworks on and off the track, CARS Tour officials issued a lengthy penalty report on Tuesday afternoon.
Andrew Grady will not compete in the next three CARS Tour races as he has been handed a suspension for assaulting or threatening to cause bodily harm to a CARS Tour official, which is a violation of Section 1D of the CARS Tour rulebook. Grady will also be fined $1,000 for that infraction.
Grady, the driver of the No. 1 TG Motorsports machine, will also be fined $500 and placed on probation for the remainder of the zMAX CARS Tour season for the unauthorized crossing of the racing surface to confront another competitor.
So, what happened?
According to Landon Huffman, Grady stormed pit road at the conclusion of Saturday night’s CARS Tour Late Model Stock event and tossed dirt and grass through Huffman’s window. Grady was upset about an incident with Huffman roughly 65 laps prior.
That action is what led to the $500 fine and probation for Grady.
According to Treyten Lapcevich in a post on X, Jack McNelly — the founder of the CARS Tour — was attempting to escort the driver back to the hauler after the post-race grass toss, when Grady got upset and shoved McNelly. Lapcevich says the shove from Grady sent McNelly to the ground, where he hit his head hard.
That incident would be the cause of the three-race suspension and an additional $1,000 fine.
Lapcevich also explained that Grady’s shove of McNelly caused his race team to spring into action to defend McNelly, which caused a brawl to erupt on pit road between Lapcevich’s team and Grady’s team.
The brawl led to CARS Tour officials issuing penalties for two crew members for entering another competitor’s pit area to instigate a physical confrontation, a violation of Section 1F of the CARS Tour rule book. Chris Courtney of the TG Motorsports team and Gage Painter of the Chad Bryant Racing team will each serve a one-race suspension and will be fined $500 apiece for their part in the post-race chaos.
Additionally, CARS Tour announced Ryan Millington, who initially won Saturday’s Late Model Stock race, but was DQed for rough driving as he spun Connor Hall for the lead, will be placed on probation for the remainder of the 2024 season. And driver Buddy Isles Jr., who drives the No. 11 entry for Vandyke Racing Performance will also be placed on probation for the remainder of the season and fined $500 for unauthorized crossing of the racing surface to confront another competitor.
For the full rundown on the post-race shenanigans at Hickory, which led to the majority of these penalties, click here.
Tempers Boil Between Huffman, Grady, Lapcevich Crew in CARS Tour Event at Hickory
