Oh. My. Goodness. Paul Tracy, the heel of the Camping World SRX Series got turned by Helio Castroneves on Lap 25 of Heat 2 on Saturday night at South Boston Speedway.
Tracy, who said on the broadcast prior to the start of the night, that he felt like he had been bullied on track at Five Flags Speedway last weekend, while attempting to be a little friendlier on track, wasn’t going to take anything from anyone on track at South Boston.
Well, now he has a score to settle.
Tracy had control of the second Heat race as he started from the front of the field. As he had led the opening 25 laps of the heat, Castroneves had moved into second after a fierce battle with Ryan Newman.
As Castroneves came up on Tracy, he made contact, which sent Tracy spinning out from the lead.
“Wow, the way I see it, it was a racing incident,” Castroneves said following the Heat race, which he went on to win.
When asked if the racing at South Boston was more aggressive than at Five Flags, Castroneves said, “A little bit more. People start knowing each other a little bit more and understanding what they can and can’t do.”
While Castroneves saw the incident as a racing deal, Tracy saw it as flat-out dirty.
“That’s about as dirty as you could ever get,” Tracy explained. “I drive rough, but that was dirty, man.”
“Car was good. He just ran right over me, spun me around here,” a seething Tracy continued. “I had a good car. Was sitting out front, pacing myself.”
When asked if Castroneves possibly ran out of brakes, Tracy quipped, “I don’t know if he ran out of brakes or ran out of brains.”
Expect there to be a continuation of this feud between Tracy and Castroneves in the Main Event.