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Officials make tough call on Sam’s great race
The officials as well as Travis Cope (#26) ended what was to be a great race for Sam on Saturday night.
Sam didn’t qualify as well as he would have liked, ending up in the 11th position. The race finally got under way after 3 restarts, only to have a large wreck toward the front of the pack. This put the 26 car of Travis Cope at the rear of the field, which was unfortunate for Sam. In typical fashion, Cope worked his way to the front with an overly aggressive driving style. By lap 34, he came up behind Sam and spun him around. Sam showed a level of patience that we had never seen before, despite being sent to the rear of the field along with Cope.
After trying everything to get around Sam, Cope finally made a clean pass and set his sights on the 9 car of Clouser. He got behind Clouser on lap 56, but Clouser managed to hang on. Cope then lost a spot, which Sam quickly took over, putting him in 6th behind Clouser. Even though his car was better than Clouser’s, he wasn’t able to make a move and did not trade paint with him. That could not be said for Cope, who continued to bash Sam’s bumper.
On a restart, Cope tried to take Sam on the outside, which he tried to do every time and seemed to get away with it. Sam wouldn’t have any of it, and pinched up to the wall. On lap 78, the very next lap, Cope spun Sam yet again. At this point, Sam’s incredible patience was starting to wear thin. He pulled up beside Cope and expressed his feelings towards him. As he pulled away, Cope intentionally gassed his car full throttle into the side of the 73 car, ramming Sam into the wall. He continued on the gas pedal as the crowd came down to watch and cheer for Sam. As mad as he could be, Sam got out of his car and began walking over to Cope’s car, but was intervened by the officials. Cope caused major damage to his car, and with the backdrop of booing and jeering from the crowd, he nearly hit another driver while on his way off the track. He went straight to his garage and shut the door down.
Sam wasn’t allowed to continue the race and was retired for the night. The officials decided that both cars should be put to the rear to earn last place points, so Sam finished on the track as the 10th place car. We feel that this decision was extremely unfair to Sam, since he didn’t put a foot wrong all night. He was understandably upset by this decision and felt that he should’ve been able to continue. Everyone congratulated him on the race. He did what every other driver wanted to do to Cope but he got punished for it.
Come see Sam for more action on Friday April 27th, at Orlando Speedworld.
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