In case you missed the past four days, Doug Barnes Jr. has been suspended by the CARS Tour for one race following an incident with Mini Tyrrell at this past weekend’s CARS Tour race at Wake County Speedway.
After taking a few days to digest the situation, Barnes announced via his YouTube channel he would be appealing the penalty issued by the CARS Tour. Should the suspension be lifted, he would be able to compete in next weekend’s event at the Nashville Fairground Speedway.
“We got out of control” Barnes said “I really think that something should’ve been handed down – I don’t think Mini should’ve been suspended but I also don’t think I should be suspended. I think probation probably would’ve been fair for the both of us. We kind of policed each others actions on the track.”
Barnes’s appeal will be heard next Monday morning.
“I’m not asking or trying to convince anything other than what happened, I’m basically just asking for a lesser sentence. – If I have to pay a fine, I have to pay a fine. If I have to be on probation for two years, then that’s what’ll happen. That’s actually what happened when I was suspended from NASCAR for jumping on Tyler’s (Hughes) car. I got unsuspended but in return I got put on probation for two years.
“Basically what it comes down to is things got out of hand, the entire race got out of hand. In my opinion. I feel like if the entire race didn’t turn into a shit show our situation might not have been looked at so heavily.
“I think where I messed up is saying I meant to get into him – I meant to boot him out of the way, but he went around. From the outside looking in if somebody said that, I’d be like yeah they tried to wreck him. Saying that out loud might’ve been dumb but I always speak raw. I say what happens, I try not to sugarcoat it.”
Barnes explains the on-track incident from his point of view.
“Just tempers boiled over on a Saturday night short track.
“I’m hoping when I sit down Monday morning in front of everybody I can articulate that a little bit better. I’m going to get some stuff together, I’m going to get some clips together. One thing I want to address on this, which I will bring up in the appeal, I feel like it makes things look worse than it actually is. I’ve seen some comments online as well and its not true, is that I pulled up the track in three and four and waited for Mini.
“When he landed on my car I went down into Turn 1 not carrying nearly as much speed as we had been the first couple laps and it got free on entry and then when I turned off the wall into Turn 3, the car about wrecked. – yeah i turned across the track to get into him but I didn’t just wait on him. I feel like that makes the situation seem a little more egregious, like I just sacrificed the lead in order to wreck Mini.”
If the suspension is upheld will Barnes continue to compete full-time in the Tour?
“I’m not interested in running for owners points. A few people told me that’s where the majority of the purse for the CARS Tour is. – I just don’t wanna do that. If I’m ineligible to win the driver’s championship, I’m probably just going to run three of four races the rest of the year. I’m not going to run tracks that I don’t want to run and I’m going to run the tracks that I do want to run.
“I can put my best effort into being the best possible cars at those races and skip the ones that I’d rather not make the drive to go race at.”
