SOUTH BOSTON, VA – When Bobby McCarty turned Matt Bowling on lap 156 in Friday night’s South Boston 200, he was sending a message to his competitors.

McCarty, who has one win on the season at South Boston, says he is frustrated with the way his competitors have raced him all year.  He showed that frustration when he turned Bowling and, if his postrace comments were any indication, he’s not going to show as much respect to his peers as he has been.

“[Bowling] divebombed me getting into three,” McCarty said after the race.  “Last weekend, he hit me twice in one race and I’ve been wrecked by a lot of cars this year for whatever reason.  I race everybody with respect down here.  When it comes down to it, I’m tired of getting wrecked by silver spoons.  If they want to race me that way because daddy’s got all the money in the world, can fix it and it not bother him, that’s fine.  If you send me up the track, you best be able to hold on to it.

“I hate to race that way but we don’t have anything to lose.  We’re here to win.  If they send me up the track, they better be ready because I’m done with it.”

McCarty said there’s no history between he and Bowling, and that they are friends.

“It’s just a general frustration,” McCarty explained.  “I sold Matt his first Go-Kart when he was about nine-years-old.  We were a team in Go-Karts and I have a lot of respect for him as a driver.  I just don’t know why he feels like he’s got to run into me when he gets to me.  We can settle it on the track, off the track or whatever, I’m just sick of it.  It’s not just Bowling.  I’ve been turned by a couple cars down here and I’m at that point that I’m not gonna put up with it anymore.”

Bowling finished the race in the third position after dominating much of the second half of the race.  He got the lead from Mark Wertz on a lap 105 restart, shortly after a halfway invert promoted him from eighth to second.  He lost the lead to Bowling on lap 155 and regained it with his bump-and-run maneuver they sent Bowling around but quickly surrendered it to Peters on lap 163.

“We were a little too far back in qualifying so we just rode,” McCarty remarked.  “We were hoping the invert would play out in our favor and it played out really well.  We got out front and I started saving some more because we had a good gap on second.  They kept telling me Bowling was catching me and I made a rookie mistake and started going too early.  I kind of burned it up and that’s on me.

“We might could have gotten away from him but I think we would’ve lost it all with about 20 to go.  We were just too tight off.”