Blenkhorn Disqualification

After the completion of the Cummins 200 at Petty International Raceway on Sunday, August 27, 2017 the 67 car, driven by Dylan Blenkhorn, was disqualified due to a weight violation. Blenkhorn’s car had 58.3% bouncing to 4% left side weight, while the rule states a maximum of 58% is allowed.

Part of the Technical Inspection on cars participating in our events is a car’s total weight, front to rear weight percentage and left to right percentage. Cars were weighed before practice, after the Heat races and again after the Feature race.

The 67 car had a 58.2% during pre-race weighing. He said he would fix it just before practice, but returned approximately 10 minutes later and the car was 58.1% bouncing to 58.2% left side weight. The driver said he would deal with it later. After winning his Heat race, he was observed passing his ¾ full water jug to a crew member. This was retrieved and placed back in the car and weighed 58.2% left side. He was told by the Technical Director that if his finish after the Feature required him to be in tech and his left side percentage was over 58%, he would be disqualified.

Post-race the 67 was rolled on the scale and weighed 58.3%. The driver asked to roll off the scales and then back on the scales to be re-weighed. Once on the scales he would not sit still and allow the scale reading to settle. The scales were turned off and the driver was told we were finished.  He asked again to be re-weighed and the car was pushed off and then back on the scales. Again he wouldn’t sit still in the car preventing the scales from settling. After some discussion, the car was weighed once more with the driver in the car, helmet on his lap, one foot on the brake and one foot on the gas, with hands on the steering wheel and the driver still. The reading was 58.3% bouncing to 58.4%. He was then disqualified.
 
There were 19 cars entered in the Cummins 200 and all cars were weighed at the intervals that the Blenkhorn car was and 18 were within the 58% left side rule. Only the Blenkhorn car was over the 58% left side rule. The scales are available to all competitors during the day to check their weights and fine tune their set-ups. Many take advantage of the opportunity and allow a small safety tolerance on weights and measurements, to prevent situations like this from happening.

The Rules and Procedures are developed with much thought and investigation, and are intended to provide safe and competitive racing, while controlling racing costs. While not everything is checked every night due to time constraints, the same thing is checked on every car.