SCS Officials: "We messed up."

This season has had a handful of controversial moments in the SCS and this race weekend in Charlotte wasn't any different. Late in the race a huge wreck would set up a final restart and eventually our race winner Luke Martin would go on to take the lead of the race and take his 19th career victory. However, this didn't stop the officials being up all night scratching their heads at what went wrong during that last caution.


After the race, the #81 team of Blue Flare Motorsports and Sean Perkins protested that there was a scoring issue that put them a lap down when they maintained their lead lap position, Perkins ended up coming from the tail end of the pack on the last restart to pass the leader with a few laps to go to cross the line just ahead of the leader and technically scored on the tail end of the lead lap.



Sean Perkins had this to say after the race, "I saw the wreck in front of me, (the final wreck of the day) and drove down the pit road in order to avoid some of the carnage up on the track. I made the pit road speed limit, and I coasted past my pit box with the idea that the wreck would boost me up to about third position. However, I came onto pit road when the red light was on. Like SCS rules stated, I started at the tail end up the lead lap for coming down pit road when it was closed. However, once we took the green, I was told by my crew we were a lap down. I claimed it was impossible. As the run continued, I had a huge run with Luke Martin. I was under the impression that the officials would fix the timing glitch. However, they never did. I called to my crew on the last lap saying, 'Are we leading this', and they responded, 'no!' I know I won that race, and I have a strong feeling Luke will have that win taken away from him. Which is kind of sad, because Luke Martin did a hell of a job getting up through the order."




SCS Officials: "We've looked really hard into this because we do realize how big of a deal it is. We knew Perkins was on the lead lap all day until that final yellow, we knew he had not pitted any during the green flag so when the protest was thrown we immediately questioned ourselves. We take a lot of pride in this series and want to make sure everything is done the right way and that every situation is looked at very carefully to make sure it is the right call. We looked back at the film of the race and our producers that broadcast the race didn't focus a whole lot on Perkins all day so it's hard to get a real idea of what happened. We take everything into consideration. However, without any evidence that Perkins did or didn't lose a lap we just have to go with our scoring. We messed up by not having video footage of exactly what happened to car #81 to bring him a lap down. We apologize to the entire BFM team and Sean Perkins on this but without any proof of exactly what happened we can't jump to conclusions and have to trust our timing and scoring. The win stands official to car #6 and Turner Fenway Racing at Charlotte.

I'm going to defend the series here. 1. There was no glitch. That's a conspiracy. 2. Luke Martin was still on the lead lap. 3. Martin deserved that Win. OOC: Move on plz from a controversy that was NOT controversy

FitzwaterAustralia59 wrote:I'm going to defend the series here. 1. There was no glitch. That's a conspiracy. 2. Luke Martin was still on the lead lap. 3. Martin deserved that Win. OOC: Move on plz from a controversy that was NOT controversy

OOC: No one has ever said that Luke Martin wasn't on the lead lap. It was whether or not Perkins was on the lead lap. Noah can't find any piece of evidence proving he was a lap down. Honestly, I think the game glitched... I have had it before as well. But Noah keeping the #6 winning was the right call.

Statement from Sean Perkins


"I am not angry with the SCS officials. I understand that they do not have evidence of me not going a lap down. Unfortunately the 11th place finish will stand. I am happy for Martin, because without him, we wouldn't have flown through the field without each other. I am really glad he won that race, and that if I couldn't win it based on what I think was a timing glitch, the best driver won that race. His car was fast as stink. 

The only thing I am concerned about is the idea that I may not pull off a win. Wins are hard to come by, and I have felt like through issues out of my own control, I have lost a chance to win about 5 different races at this point. For the first time in my career, I actually feel demoralized. I feel like no matter what happens, some act of god will prevent me from winning. This BFM team deserves a win, and Kyle (Collins) and I are determined to bring them their first win."