Late Model Stock Car (LMSC) driver Doug Barnes Jr. demanded that Carteret County Speedway pay him $10,000 after the track disqualified him following his apparent victory at the annual Solid Rock Carriers Race of Champions on December 10th.
Doug Barnes Jr. via AirDoug YouTube
Carteret County Speedway originally announced that Doug Barnes Jr. had won the race writing on Facebook, “Doug Barnes Jr. is your Race of Champions winner!! He made a pass with 2 to go and will take home the $10,000.”
However, they would quickly issue an update stating that his “88 car has been disqualified.”
Carteret County Speedway Facebook
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The victory would then be given to CARS Tour regular Jared Fryar. Carteret County Speedway posted to Facebook writing, “After further review, Doug Barnes Jr. Has been disqualified and Jared Fryar is your Race of Champions $10,000 winner for 2022!”
Carteret County Speedway Facebook
Carteret County Speedway would issue an official statement explaining the decision to disqualify Doug Barnes Jr.
It reads, “Despite the rumor going around, initiated by a media outlet, CCS officials did not need (nor did they review) any video to determine this disqualification. The #88 was disqualified for having an un-approved tire on his car.”
“The race was a five tire race, with the rule that you could change your fifth tire on the Stage 1 or Stage 2 break or anytime in the final stage. The #88 crew followed that rule. However, their fifth tire was punctured in an on-track incident and instead of replacing it with the one remaining approved race tire they had, it was replaced with an un-approved tire. That resulted in the disqualification,” they asserted.
Carteret County Speedway Facebook
Doug Barnes Jr. disputes Carteret County Speedway’s ruling and is demanding they pay him the $10,000 for winning the race. Not only that he’s accusing track officials of being crooked.
He wrote on Twitter, “Carteret County Speedway completely robbed us from a win. I want everyone to know the antics and the effort they went through just to stop us from winning.”
Doug Barnes Jr. Twitter
In a video upload, Barnes begins, “On Saturday night we finally picked up our first win of the year. It took 12 months to get there, but we finally got it and we also collected a $10,000 payday or so we thought because Carteret County Speedway completely robbed us of a win and they are crooked. There’s really no other way to say it in my perspective.”
He then shared his side of the story of what happened on Saturday night. Barnes admitted, “I could not stop running over everybody, to be honest. I got in multiple incidents. I spun two people, which I take the blame for. Somebody spun themselves off of me, but this incident that I’m about to show right here is what led to the start of everything.”
He goes on to detail an accident he caused by hitting the rear end of the No. 7 and spinning him coming off the corner. He was then hit in the rear and spun out making contact with the inside wall.
Doug Barnes Jr. at Carteret County Speedway via AirDoug YouTube
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After recounting this accident and noting that he went down pit road to fix his hood that was blocking his vision, Barnes backtracked and explained the rules of the race, “The race procedure for this race is a 5-tire race, which means you have one tire that you can use throughout the rest of the night.”
“But now we get to the tricky part. What happens if you need more. Say you put on that extra sticker tire you have. You can put that tire anywhere you want: right front, right rear, left front, left rear. It doesn’t matter. What happens if you need one more? Now, that’s what happened to us,” he explained.
Doug Barnes Jr. at Carteret County Speedway via AirDoug YouTube
Returning to the accident, he stated, “When I spun, I hit the inside wall. Now, when I come down pit road we are focusing on the nose. We’re trying to get everything back intact. Now, at this point the way the car looked I fully thought that our night was over.”
He then added, “But we looked at the right rear and the rim was bent. So we took that off and now we’re forced to use our sticker.”
Doug Barnes Jr. tire and wheel at Carteret County Speedway via AirDoug YouTube
After explaining they changed the tire due to the bent wheel, Barnes shared a shot of the tire that they pulled off saying, “This is the tread depth of the right rear tire that we took off because of the bent rim.”
“As you can see this tire is not worn that much,” he says. “This tire had a lot of life left in it. I had been taking care of the right rear the entire race. We never wanted to take this tire off. But we had to because of the rim. You don’t want to wreck a race car because of something dumb like that.
“I’m just pointing this out because I don’t want people to think that I had burnt the right rear off and we just had nothing left in it. We took a good tire off the car. We never planned on doing that and we never wanted to do that. So unless you want to risk the car being completely destroyed you don’t want to race with a bent rim. We took it off and we were forced to put our extra tire on. So now we have used all five tires,” Barnes explains.
Doug Barnes Jr. tire from Carteret County Speedway via AirDoug YouTube
Barnes then reveals they discovered that their right front tire was also flat. He states, “We drop the car. And we look and the right front is flat. What do you do in this situation? Now normally, at most tracks it’s either a 6-tire race or an 8-tire race or if its 4-tire race you have tires that are designated for use in this event. In case something like this happens. There’s no rule for this.”
“We prepared as normal. We had two tires sitting there and we used our sticker tire. So now we took the next tire which I want to point out was an 80-lap scuff tire from the previous day in practice that had four heat cycles on it. This was not a good tire at all, but it’s all we had. We put it on the car and we went back out on the track,” he relays.
Doug Barnes Jr. at Carteret County Speedway via AirDoug YouTube
Barnes then reiterates that the track did not have a rule in place in case one runs out of the five tires allotted for the race, “Now, I want to state again there was not a rule in place on what to when you run out five tires, if you need to use a sixth.”
He goes on to reveal that track officials knew about the tire change due to the flat tire and bent rim, “So we go back out on the track and an official comes over, has a conversation with our guys. We also pointed out to the official the flat tire. He saw it and said, ‘Okay.’ We go on. We go out there and we came from dead last up to about third.”
Barnes then goes on to note that the track had numerous opportunities with 50 laps to go to have him come down pit road and park the car or have him and his team put the bent rim back on. However, he notes track officials did not do this.
Doug Barnes Jr. via AirDoug YouTube
After recounting how he won the race and passed Fryar with two laps to go, Barnes details events that took place in Victory Lane, “Now, for the first time in my life when a track owner is congratulating you he puts heavy, heavy emphasis on the fact that the race is not official.”
“And we were taking our pictures with the trophy and stuff like that and the people around us are being very stringy,” he claims. “I don’t have this on video, but at one point we were just taking a picture with the car. So my dad had the trophy and the check and he took it just three feet away from Victory Lane and they came and took it from him, making sure that we were not leaving with it. We were not done taking pictures with it, but they were so stingy with it.”
Members of Doug Barnes Jr. crew discussing the disqualification at Carteret County Speedway via AirDoug YouTube
From there he then recounts events during tech and that the head official informed them they were thrown out. Barnes recounts, “He goes on to tell us how we should have asked an official.”
However, Barnes notes, “You will see in the Vlog how much of a mess this race was. There was one official on pit road, who was dealing with somebody else who was involved in the incident. There wasn’t much time until we were going back to green. The track had just been cleared. We didn’t even set the pressures for the right front tire. We just bolted it onto the car because we didn’t want to miss the start and lose a lap.”
He then reiterates, “Again, he came over and talked to us. He knew. They were well aware for just about 50 laps what we had on the car. You can not change your mind after we win the race. If this is against the rules, park us.”
Doug Barnes Jr. via AirDoug YouTube
Barnes then reveals that another competitor, the No. 44 actually put on a scuff tire as well. However, he is unsure whether or not he put on his fifth designated sticker tire as well. Barnes also states, “I was told that multiple other people did this as well. I cannot find evidence on it, but obviously, if it happened once it more than likely happened again.”
“I’m not here to speculate though. This is just a confirmed instance,” he adds. “So let me ask you something: if there’s five tires allowed in a race why was the sticker tire not the one that had to go on the car? He did not get disqualified and he put another tire on the car before ever using his assigned fifth tire. So he brought another tire into the mix before ever using his fifth tire.”
Stacy Puryear at Carteret County Speedway via AirDoug YouTube
Barnes then accuses the track of predetermining his disqualification before he even went through tech. “I believe all of this was predetermined. All of it. The second that I started being a contender in this race it was predetermined. They completely changed their mind because I don’t think they ever thought I stood a chance to win.”
“This is not a normal tech thing. This is not something that was uncovered after the race was over. You knew about it. Carteret knew about this tire,” he declares. “They let me proceed to race.”
Doug Barnes Jr. via AirDoug YouTube
Barnes then elaborates on why he believes the disqualification was predetermined, “So Solid Rock Carriers is the sponsor of this race. Solid Rock Carriers supports a lot of Carteret County Speedway’s races. I want to say they did multiple $10,000 to win races this year. Finishing in second place behind me was the No. 14 of Jared Fryar, who is sponsored by Solid Rock Carriers.”
He then accuses the track of throwing a caution to aid Fryar because he did not get fuel during the race and he would have given the amount of cautions that took place that extended the race, “What Carteret did here is what was the first step in giving the 14 the win. The 14’s crew complained to officials and the officials threw a competition caution for one car.”
“If fuel was an issue, he should have had to pit by himself because this was in other people’s minds when they pitted,” Barnes said. “And only one car had not been refueled and it was the No. 14. So they threw a competition caution for him.”
Jared Fryar via AirDoug YouTube
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“Just when you think it can’t get any more crooked — there’s a lot of coincidences and maybe I’m just complaining — there’s another incident that does not even involve me. I’ve heard this from multiple people now. There was a race earlier this year where Jared Fryar also finished second to Connor Hall. … So Connor Hall won the race, officially cleared tech. Officially means it’s said and done. Jared Fryar’s guys started complaining about the height and the angle on Connor Hall’s spoiler. The track owner came down and reversed the call,” Barnes detailed.
He continued, “So then obviously Connor’s guys, they argued for over an hour and instead of disqualifying Connor they made him split the purse with Jared Fryar. Now if Connor’s stuff is wrong. It’s wrong. He should have been disqualified, but you didn’t get it before you cleared him. You can’t bring somebody back in the tech. When they’re gone. They’re gone.”
Doug Barnes Jr. and Connor Hall at Hickory Motor Speedway via FloRacing
Barnes then concludes his videos noting how much he enjoys racing at Carteret County Speedway, but given the crooked dealings by track officials he will never return to it.
“If you’re a driver, think about it this way. This could be you. This could potentially happen to you if you go race at this track. This is not a NASCAR sanctioned track,” he asserted.
He then concluded, “I still consider it a win in my book, but it would be nice for it to be officially considered and just for y’all to admit your wrongs.”
Doug Barnes Jr. via AirDoug YouTube
What do you make of Barnes’ accusations against Carteret County Speedway?