WINCHESTER, Ind. -- Bubba Pollard believes he was wrongly scored one lap down in the middle stages of Sunday’s Winchester 400 Super Late Model race and that the adversity of that decision cost him a chance to contend for the victory.
Bubba Pollard scores top-10 in Winchester 400 but questions CRA timing and scoring
Bubba Pollard was placed a lap down by ARCA/CRA Super Series officials despite various forms of measurement claiming that he was on the lead lap. It changed the course of his afternoon and saw him finish in ninth.
Matt Weaver
Pollard ran in the top-10 for much of the race but was scored one lap down while spending time in pit road. The scenario is somewhat dubious because the scoring device inside the car -- called a transponder -- still credited the Southern Super Series championship leader as on the lead lap.
He was placed one lap down because a CRA officials in the tower claimed that Pollard had been passed by the leader. Race control overrided the computer and Pollard was placed a lap down.
Pollard was able to work his way back onto the lead lap through a long green flag run but lost a set of tires due to a flat and having to work his back way through the field. He says the decision to place him down a lap was both incorrect and affected the outcome of his race.
He ultimately finished in ninth.
“There’s no way we lost a lap,” Pollard told SB Nation after the race. “We beat the pace car out every time. There are three No. 26 cars out here so I guess we need to change our number for the next time we come out here. But we never sat on pit road and we never lost a lap. It was just a mistake on their part and we had to come back from that all day.”
Gleen Luckett is the CRA Series Director and also serves as the director of race control. He stands by the decision made by his staff.
He explained to SB Nation in a separate interview on Monday afternoon that the manual scorers are in the tower watching cars on pit road because the potential for a car to lose a lap and not get caught by the transponder is greatest there.
“I didn’t see where Pollard went down a lap and you’d have to ask the scorer who caught that,” Luckett said. “But we do have protocol in place to override the system if we feel a car has gone a lap down and that’s what we believe happened on Sunday.”
Pollard explained his case to Luckett and the CRA officials after the race and while no changes will come out of it, the Georgia driver is ready to move on and complete his first season in the newly-formed Southern Super Series where he is leading Daniel Hemric by 48 points with one race left to go -- the All-American 400 at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.
There are a maximum of 125 points available to teams in that race and Pollard is confident he can close out after winning the inaugural Series event in Tennessee earlier this season.
“We were strong back there in April and hopefully we can go back and have a strong race,” Pollard said. “I just hate that we’ve had these races get canceled (this year) because I like to race Daniel and who knows what could have happened -- it could have gone either way.
“So going into the race I would like to have had that cushion.”
The Southern Super Series has had three events get canceled this season, including two at Mobile International Speedway and another at Gresham Motorsports Park.
For now, Pollard will settle for a top-10 in Winchester and will focus on winning Nashville and a season championship.
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