Jacksonville Speedway owner Kenny Dobson issued a statement after track officials failed to throw a caution for three laps after a car flipped exiting turn 4.
On Friday night, during the Midwest Open Wheel Association feature Kevin Newton flipped and went upside down on lap 12 of 25. However, track officials did not appear to see the wreck and allowed the race to stay green for three more laps.
Announcer Tommy Cook attempted to inform track officials, “Now, car upside down it’s Kevin Newton. … We’re still green. I don’t know why. Nobody’s throwing a caution. Throw the caution flag. Is anybody paying attention? Hello?!? We just had a car flip over, throw the red flag. What are we doing? Come on! What is going on? Pay attention.”
After the caution finally came out, he shouted, “Three laps we let the cars go around with a flipped car on the front stretch. What are we doing, guys? Come on! That is ridiculous.” Fortunately, seconds later he reported that Newton had exited the car and was unharmed.
Cook went on to explain why officials might have been distracted and not seen Newton, “Everybody’s attention was on Jake Neuman, who was trying to crawl to the infield, but Kevin Newton flipped out of turn 4 and we stayed green for three whole laps.”
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In a post to Facebook, Dobson addressed the lack of a caution by first noting the unique nature of the track, “Jacksonville Speedway is fairly unique in that it is one of the very few tracks where by its nature everyone is in the middle of the racetrack. Officials and flagman alike – meaning that everyone’s back is turned to half of the track. Typically not all backs are turned to the same direction – in this instance they were. There were a series of events that allowed that to happen unexpectedly.”
He went on to note there is one individual who is positioned in the grandstands to be able to see the entire race track that person being himself, “But… there is one set of eyes from the grandstand who’s job it is to see the whole race track – because the grandstands is the one place you can see it all. That person is me.”
However, he was out of position. He explained, “Typically during a race I am positioned near the stage with radio in hand because we know there are blind spots from the infield. I’m sure you’ve seen that when a car stalls outside of turn 1 and those on the infield can’t see it. Friday night I was out of position at the time when all backs were turned. Other things going on Friday night had me run down to the Queen’s Room to print out Sportsman checks instead of being the eyes from the grandstand side for a situation like this as I usually am – particularly during the Sprint Car portion of the event.”
He later reiterated, “The truth is that more than anyone, I myself was out of position and if I hadn’t been – the incident would have been immediately called to race control’s attention as I would have had the best view of it. Our staff knows I’m there – and I wasn’t there. It’s hard to point fingers at anyone else when you yourself could have solved it by being where everyone assumes you are. The buck stops here.”
After acknowledging what went wrong with the situation, he shared that internal steps have been taken to ensure it does not happen again, “We have internally taken many steps over the past few days to prevent this type of situation from happening again. I have spoken to our team and all drivers alike identifying what contributed and how to put a process in place to create more eyes and voices, more ‘specific area’ responsibility and most importantly for those who have no responsibility for officiating a race to know that they are empowered to use their radio for any red flag or potentially dangerous situation we need to be aware of.”
Additionally, he shared, “I’m confident we have addressed this situation as an organization in the right way. I’m moving on, confident that this reminder of how we must divide our attention and focus will make us better. Nobody was hurt. We were caught with our pants down in a very public way. I’m now moving on and hope you can let our staff do the same.”
Again, he emphasized, “Regardless, don’t for a minute think we have ignored it. To a person we have owned it and fully addressed it internally. No doubt it was a very public bad look. That goes with being willing to broadcast your events nationwide. The world sees you at your best – and occasionally when your pants are down. But the team we have here are the ones I’ll do this with as long as we are doing it. To a person they are fully invested in providing a safe, fun and top-shelf experience every time we open the doors.”
Dobson also addressed Cook’s announcing and stood behind him, ” He’s not there to announce in the light most favorable to us – he’s there to make your experience better and to share in your emotions and perspective. I have zero problem with Tommy having shown his emotions about the situation and calling a spade a spade from the perspective everyone in the grandstand had at that moment. I hope those sharing his call out there on social media aren’t doing it to mock him or laugh at him – but are doing it out of respect for telling it the way it was.”
“If as a group we ever need to be thrown under the bus, I don’t mind Tommy doing the throwing when deserved,” he added. “That call is something we will laugh about some day. A memory of our time together at the Speedway. Help us keep his head up!”
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Happens at every level. Car catches on fire on pit lane at a NASCAR race and the people responsible to put out the fire were too fat and out of shape to get over the pit wall. No one at any level cares about driver safety, no one, it’s a myth.