DirtonDirt exclusive
Restarting on a flat tire? Race directors air it out
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
The flat tire Hudson O'Neal restarted with in Fairbury, Ill. (joshjamesartwork.com)
Hudson O’Neal led a Prairie Dirt Classic semifeature with six laps remaining when he lined up for a restart with a flat left-rear tire. Dalton Cook was one spot shy of transferring through a World 100 heat when he restarted with a flat left-front. Both had remained competitive before the cautions. Both restarts, however, ended in multicar crashes.
The incidents have left Dirt Late Model officials with a difficult call: When should a driver with a flat tire be required to pit?
“The last thing you want to do is pull a guy off a racetrack that’s out there racing the biggest race of the whole year for something that he’s able to maintain and finish,” MARS Championship Series race director Jonathan Clayton said.
At the time, neither O’Neal nor Cook faced a rule requiring them to pit before the restart. O’Neal could defend his lead. Cook could keep fighting for a World 100 transfer spot. Officials had to make the call without knowing what would happen when the field went back to green.
A logjam followed O’Neal’s restart at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway, where a pileup knocked second-running Dan Ebert and 10th-running Jake O’Neil out of contention. At Eldora Speedway, Cook’s car was involved in a turn-one crash that collected several drivers, including former race winner Dale McDowell.
Cook disputes that his flat caused the wreck. In a Facebook post, the Salem, Ala., driver said he checked up entering the corner, anticipating an aero push, and was hit in the left-rear almost simultaneously.
“It didn’t matter if that tire had 30 pounds of air or zero,” Cook wrote. “I was entering that corner the same way and there just was an accident.”
For World of Outlaws Late Model Series race director Mitch Hedstrom, requiring O’Neal to pit and change tires didn’t enter the discussion that Friday at Fairbury.
“In the moment, Day One, there was no discussion to pull him off,” Hedstrom said. “It was really an unprecedented circumstance for me and our team. With no verbiage in the rulebook or previous rulings, we never debated pulling him off.”
World of Outlaws officials reviewed the incident, seeking driver feedback. At the following day’s drivers’ meeting, Hedstrom announced a new rule: If a tire on any corner of the car is completely flat and down on the rim when a caution occurs, the driver must change it before restarting.
“We’re not gonna decide whether left-side tires are more important than right-side tires,” Hedstrom said. “That’s why we went all four corners and all four tires. Because you do hear that sometimes the left-front doesn’t matter as much. Well, we’re not gonna decide at which racetracks the left-front can get by with it and which one you can’t.”
A flat tire alone doesn't necessarily bring out a caution. Hedstrom said a driver can continue under green if the car maintains speed and stays out of the way. Once a caution comes out, a driver whose tire is completely down on the rim must pit regardless of running position.
“It could happen to the guy in the lead, and the caution comes out for debris or the last-place guy or whatever it is, and he’s been leading for six laps on a flat tire. Unfortunately, he’s gonna have to pit,” Hedstrom said. “It could bite anybody in the field, whether it’s the leader or the last-place guy, but when it comes down to it, we deem it a safety issue.”
Scott Bloomquist’s B-main victory during the 2018 Show-Me 100 weekend at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., is often cited in debates over racing with a nearly inoperable tire. After contact with Jimmy Mars on a restart, Bloomquist led the final nine laps with the wheel folded back.
Bloomquist said the contact had “pulled the upper control arm out of the frame,” but the damaged suspension still held the car up. A flat left-front would have lowered it further: “You’re down farther than what I actually was,” he said.
DIRTcar Summer Nationals race director and Slingin’ Dirt Super Late Model Series founder D.J. Smallwood referred to Bloomquist while explaining why he would let a driver continue under green if the car remained competitive.
“How many times have we seen guys like, you know, the Bloomquist deal?” Smallwood said. “He won a race. So I’m not gonna stop a guy if he’s still advancing or if he’s holding his own.”
Ray Cook, who operates the Southern All Star Series along with Schaeffer’s Spring and Southern Nationals, said he has seen drivers continue with a flat left-front, but O’Neal restarting with a flat left-rear at Fairbury “was a first” for him. A flat right-side tire, he said, has almost always meant a trip to the pits.
Cook addressed drivers before last Thursday’s Southern All Star event at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tennessee., telling them a tire down on the rim must be changed before a restart. Under green, he would not necessarily throw a caution for a flat alone if the driver maintained control.
Cook adopted the rule after the World 100 incident but stressed that he didn't fault Dalton Cook or Eldora officials for the decisions they made at the time.
“I wouldn’t have done anything different than they’d done,” Ray Cook said. “That’s the one thing I wanted to be clear about. But after seeing that, there are things I know to do now, and that’s become one of those things.”
Cook estimated the crash caused roughly $12,000 in damage to McDowell’s car. After seeing the consequences, he wanted drivers to know where the line stood.
“We’ve seen what’s happened here,” Cook said. “We don’t do this anymore.”
Smallwood draws a firm line on right-side flats. With a left-side flat, he would watch how the car handles under green and expects to bring the driver in if a caution sets up a restart.
“Anything on the right side, I’m not gonna let that continue,” Smallwood said. “That’s a safety issue. Doesn’t matter front or rear.”
He would give a driver with a left-side flat more leeway under green, provided the car remained competitive and held a stable line.
“I’m not gonna throw a caution just ’cause a guy’s got a flat tire,” Smallwood said. “But if a guy is all over the racetrack, and he’s top to bottom, I’m probably gonna go ahead and throw the caution.”
A restart changes his assessment.
“If we don’t have a caution and the guy’s maintaining it, I’m gonna let him ride,” Smallwood said. “If a caution comes out, I’m probably gonna pull him in at that point. I don’t want to create an issue on a restart.”
Clayton intends to keep judging flat tires case by case. MARS has brought in drivers whose flat tires made their cars unsafe, while allowing others to continue when they held their line and maintained speed.
“I don’t foresee myself changing what we do based upon one situation or two situations,” Clayton said. “What tire’s flat? How much is left in the race? What kind of line are they running? Is it gonna affect what they’re doing?”
He questions how a blanket rule could be enforced for every tire that merely appears low.
“I’m not going out and checking air pressure from every car out there to tell you that this tire’s flat or not flat,” he said. “There’s a line there.”
Clayton called the World 100 pileup a worst-case outcome but wasn’t second-guessing Matt Curl, the World 100 race director and MARS tour owner for which Clayton works.
“At the time, (Curl) did what he felt like was right,” Clayton said. “That’s why I feel like every situation is different.”
Requiring a driver to pit can take away a chance to win. Allowing that driver to restart with a flat can put others at risk. For Hedstrom, protecting the field takes priority.
“You’re bound to anger somebody throughout the evening — or definitely the season,” Hedstrom said. “But I’d rather all of them be safe rather than all of them be either hurt or mad.”
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race director Jeremy Shields was contacted for this story but declined to comment.
