DOVER, Del. — A rough Friday morning ride led to backup cars for two young drivers in the NASCAR XFINITY Series field, as tempers flared inside the garage area at the ‘Monster Mile’.
With 21 minutes to go in the first practice session, Spencer Gallagher came up on the slower car of Joey Gase as the duo approached Turn 3, making contact with Gase’s No. 52 Chevrolet after Gase backed up his corner entry more than Gallagher had expected.
From there, both cars spun into the corner on the high side, with Gase’s car looping around and smacking the SAFER Barrier with the left side as Gallagher sustained right-rear damage to his machine.
Gase’s car had to be towed back to the garage area as a result, and the damage from the incident forced both teams to unload their backup cars for the remainder of the weekend.
Gallagher ripped into Gase on the radio as he drove back to his garage stall, furious over the incident that has put both teams behind the 8-ball for the remainder of the weekend.
“He just stopped going into three!” Gallagher fumed. “What (was) he thinking? Unbelievable! I’m sorry guys.”
The two also had a testy exchange when they crossed paths in the garage after the incident.
It was Gase, however, who had words for Gallagher when he was interviewed for television before the end of the practice session.
“He just flat-out spun me going into (Turn) 3 for no reason,” Gase said of Gallagher. “We were struggling really bad. I gave him plenty of room and he just drove right into me. I think it just shows how bad of a driver he is. Look, right now in the garage stall … he’s one spot ahead of us in driver’s and owner’s (points), (but) he’s about probably five to seven million more dollars invested in his team right now than what we have.”
“All he said was ‘get the hell away from me,’ so he didn’t give me a reason or anything other than I guess he just sucks really, really bad.”
Gase admitted that he is unsure whether his Jimmy Means Racing team will be able to get their backup car ready to be able to take a lap in final practice, with the car being little more than a shell which requires many of the usable pieces from the primary car to be put onto the backup in order to make it race-ready.
Final NASCAR XFINITY Series practice from Dover Int’l Speedway kicks off at 1:30 p.m. ET, live on FOX Sports 1.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 23-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
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