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Monday, July 28, 2008

Press release from Danny Dietrich

I have been contacted by Danny Dietrich in regards to the situations that happened at Lincoln Speedway this past weekend. Here is what the driver of the Racer's Used Auto Parts 88 has to say on what happened this past weekend.

Lincoln Speedway issues of July 26, 2008

As far as I’m concerned Saturday night was totally officiated wrong. Now I know things aren’t always perfect nor can they be in the world of racing, but Saturday was out of hand. There were some calls that were horrible, not just mine but the one in 410 features that may have cost the leader of that race a win also.

Many of you may not have been there or remember but Mr. Kohler cost me a win back in my rookie year at Lincoln speedway in this same manner. He is trying to get the leader past the line to score the lap. Regardless of what the rules state, if the leader goes past the line he will count that lap. I was coming out of turn four and someone had spun in 2, he waited until I entered turn 2 to throw the caution. The same instance happened to the leader Saturday night in the 410’s.

When there is a person in the racing groove, off the pace and a possible hazard that caution needs to come out ASAP! There is no excuse for either of those cars to have been torn up! And it happens EVERY week. I was trying to help the car that was the leader of that race back in the pit area and even though it was the flagman’s fault they never gave him anytime to fix it (it was a matter of changing a few radius rods and a header.) This call by the officiating was down right WRONG. This is a safety issue and also the reason we have these radios is for safety(Mr. Kohler was the one who made us all spend the hundred dollars for them and pushed for us to have them.)... makes me wonder why we have them now….

As per my incident, there was no jump according to the rule that is discussed every year, at the opening day drivers meeting on the starts and restarts. A car must stay in line (nose to tail) until the leaders are given the green flag. It was questioned, when the front row is given the green it don’t matter if your in the 12th row going into turn three or 6th row in the middle of the turn, when the green is flown you are allowed to pass high or low, regardless of where you are on the track. When the green is displayed the race is on. In this case when the green flew I pulled out of line (never pulled beside until the chalk line), and passed until the end of the straight away. That is legal. When the lap 18 caution came out they came across the radio saying I was to be behind the 25, and then changed to be behind the 16, and was told I was penalized for passing a row. This is completely wrong! If it was anything it should have been that I was penalized 2 spots for being out of line. Not 4! End of discussion.

As for the ordeal on the front stretch, if I offended anyone for the actions or words used, I apologize. I also want to say congrats to Aaron on his win. He may not have been the fastest car but he did what he had to do on the restart, to win the race.
I hope this clears some things up, but Lincoln has had issues for years with incidents like these. Until Lincoln takes actions with the 2 head flagmen we will continue with these issues, as we have been for years.
I hope everyone was happy with the racing Saturday night. That’s all I can ask for, and I’ll see everyone this Saturday. If all goes well I will be signing autographs for kids.

Thank You!
Danny Dietrich

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