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Mansfield Speedway Track Owner Addresses Track Conditions During First Night Of Blaster 57 Special: “Makes Me Want To Throw Up”

May 30, 2026  ·
  John Trent

Mansfield Speedway owner Matt Tifft was not pleased with the track conditions during the first night of the Blaster 57 Special on Friday and promised a better night of racing tonight for the finale.

In a video posted to Facebook, Tifft shared, “I ran last night, and thank you to Ryan Markham and congrats to his win last night in the modifieds. I wanted to have some fun, of course, to go race on my tack, but I also wanted to get a feel of what was happening out there. Kind of a tale of two stories. The first race [with the American Late Model Iron-Man Series] it would not stop raining at all. One of the wettest springs we’ve ever had here. And we over wetted the track for the past race there. Last night we underwatered and dust bowl. I hate dust bowls. Can’t see anything. Fans can’t see [crap]. That sucked.”

“We had a big old hole going into the top of 3,” he continued. “We’ve never had that hole. We’ve filed the bottom of turn 3 before. It gotta a little rough down there still, but the top of 3, I’ve never seen that be an issue in the past. With that being said that really took us by surprise. It required some track work. I’ve said this before I hate slow shows. It is driving me crazy. So this is year 1. I know it’s night 2. This is not what we are doing going forward. We are going to get this dialed in. I promise.”

“So with that said our track crew was working until about 4 am. I was on the phone with them until about 3 am until I finally passed out. I’d had enough. I was done. They are still rolling right now. We’ve regraded the entire track. We’re going to get this thing right. I feel a lot better for tonight. We’ve got a couple soft spots we’re still working on that’s going to take some more work after this weekend to get — I’m not going to say it’s going to be perfect tonight, but it should be a lot better.”

“There’s a lot of things that go into this. It’s tough. I’m not going to lie to you. Putting this much effort into what was not even a race track anymore 10-11 months ago and bringing one of the most pristine series out here and it not being right. It hurts. It hurts quite a bit to not have it right. It makes me want to throw up. That’s what I’m going to say about that. It makes you want to throw up. I put my heart, my soul, my energy, my wife Jordan, my family, I have so many members of my family working in on this project. We have been working nonstop, late hours to make this thing go, and we’re not going to stop until we get this thing right. … We’re committed to make this thing good.”

“So if you believe we’re happy with last night. That’s [bollox]. We’re not happy,” he added. “I’m glad it ended up being a decent finish. I’m glad that fans had a good time. I hope they had a good time.”

The track got its fair share of criticism, but it’s also received plenty of accolades. One of the drivers who was critical was Bobby Pierce. Following his third place finish last night, Pierce simply told DirtVision’s Rich Vleck, “Good luck on this.”

Pierce cracked after the race on X, “Let’s just pretend I was talking about my race car or something..”

In a post ahead of tonight’s program, Pierce admitted he was critical of the track, but shared his appreciation for Tifft’s hard work, “Everyone by now knows I wasn’t happy with the track quality yesterday regarding safety and car maintenance, but I appreciate Matt as a fellow racer and promoter for taking our concerns seriously. The track crew & other volunteers have been working hard to fix it, and we are hopeful for much better racing conditions tonight.”

Nick Hoffman also shared his criticism on X writing, “Congrats to terbo on 100k tonight. As for the rest of this tweet I better just ⬇️ 🙃 [Zippit].

In a post earlier today, he also gave credit where it’s due, “Give credit where it’s due. We obviously raced on less than ideal track conditions last night. After the races last night Mark Richards (owner of Rocket Chassis and Rocket1) got in the motor grader and worked until 4 am and was back on it at 10 this morning.”

“Now we have David Wells (owner of Wells Motorsports and Infinity chassis) inside a skid steer moving dirt also. These guys didn’t have to do this. They are just trying to give us the best product possible in a single day fix for the big show tonight. That deserves a hat shake,” he added.

Tonight’s program will see the Outlaws compete for $57,000 to-win as well as just $5,700 to start.

NEXT: Ricky Thornton Jr. Explains Why He Called It A Night Early At Mansfield With The World Of Outlaws

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Author: John Trent