Late Model Stock Car racing’s missed shift ‘epidemic’ strikes at Southern National

Kaden Honeycutt and Matt Cox’s victories at Southern National on Thursday were overshadowed by a storyline that has been all to common in Late Model Stock Car racing in recent years: Missed shifts on starts and restarts.

When Helio Meza, who started in the fourth position in the first race of a double feature, apparently missed a shift on the initial start of the race, multiple drivers had their races cut short. Among the drivers involved were Sam Yartbrough, Tyler Matthews, Conner Weddell, and Caleb Johnson.

It did not take long for the conversation to begin, both at the track and online.

“The epidemic of missed shifts continues & it has ended our SpeedWeek,” Late Model driver Andrew Grady, who was spotting for Sam Yarbrough, said on a Facebook post. “Thankful for the opportunity to work with a great group of guys this week.”

Landon Huffman, who has emerged as one of Late Model Stock Car racing’s most popular drivers due to his social media presence, also chimed in with a facetious Facebook post about “Huffman Racing manual transmission school.”

It is an issue that has plagued the zMAX CARS Tour for the past few seasons.

Spire Motorsports competition director Matt McCall, who won the UARA-STARS Late Model Stock Car touring series championship in 2009, was able to avoid the opening lap melee. After the race, he said it is part of racing.

“We were lucky we were on the bottom right there,” McCall told Short Track Scene. “I mean, you know, the biggest thing is just going through the motions, but experience is the only way to get that. I think nerves, the races at thse bigger races, big name guys here, probably create a little bit of feelings that people are not smooth. But, I mean, it happens. I’ve done it probably a couple times in my career. It happens and you got to try to avoid it if you can.”

Honeycutt weighed in after the race about what other competitors have called an epidemic, putting the

“Team owners need to do a better job preparing young racecar drivers and guys who don’t do this all the time,” Honeycutt said. “I know Helio. Helio’s a great kid. He is really fast on road course stuff, wins a lot. Just a simple mistake man. Sometimes it does happen. As an owner for me and Kenneth, we teach Matthew [Laprade] every time he goes out and practices to practice a shift at high speed just to get in his mind his repetition.”

Honeycutt also said team owners should encourage their drivers to take advantage of the ample amount of testing time provided in pavement late model racing to practice starts and restarts.

Everyone on the team owner side can just encourage our drivers to go out and practice restarts. It’s not a bad thing. You have practice and testing. There are plenty of opportunities to make them better.”

It was a sentiment echoed by McCall.

“Any type of practice for that, the restarts dictate the way this racing is,” McCall said. “Everybody runs the same lap times for the most part, so restarts are what matter the most to keep track position.”

McCall also noted that the vast majority of passenger vehicles that are sold to consumers and that people learn to drive with are automatic transmission vehicles.

“I don’t think anybody has a street car with a shifter in it,” McCall explained. “So they won’t practice shifting gears ever, right?  If you didn’t grow up driving something shifting from the time you were 10, 11, 12 years old, you probably have to learn pretty high rate.”

Cox, who won the second Late Model Stock feature, also weighed in after the race.

“I don’t know, it’s just young kids that don’t really run these cars a lot and used to shifting,” Cox commented. “They either over-rev or, I don’t really know what they think. They’re a lot better off just to play it safe and getting it in fourth and keep rolling instead of trying to twist them so hard and trying to rush it in fourth or whatever they’re doing, I don’t know. I wish they could figure it out. I hate seeing good racecars get tore up before you complete a lap. Maybe one day they’ll figure it out.”

Missed shifts are not exclusive to young and inexperienced drivers, however.

Last November, in the Thanksgiving Classic, NASCAR Cup Series driver Josh Berry, who is also one of the most successful drivers in Late Model Stock Car racing history, missed a shift. That missed shift triggered a multi-car accident.

Coincidentally, Conner Weddell and Andrew Grady were both tangled up in that mishap.

Brian Vause, a former Late Model Stock Car racer himself and the current race director at Southern National and Florence Motor Speedway, addressed missed shifts in the drivers meeting ahead of Wednesday’s Jerry Moody Memorial. Vause warned drivers that, if a missed shift caused an accident, the driver who race control deemed missed the shift would also be sent to the rear of the field.

That ruling was made after the opening lap melee on Thursday.

Short Track Scene reached out to Matt Piercy Racing prior to publication for comment and have yet to hear back.