SWANSBORO, NC – Tyler Matthews qualified on the pole and was dominating in Sunday’s Labor Day Classic until a crash on lap 26 took him out of contention.
Matthews was trying to pass the lapped car of Maddy Ryan Mulligan when the two made contact, breaking the tie-rod on his car. Immediately after the contact, when sent Mulligan around, Matthews’ car drove right into the turn one wall.
“When we got by that lapped car, we broke a tie-rod,” Matthews said. “I hate that it happens like that but it’s racing and something always happens. It’ll be alright. We’ll get it back together and get it back running next week.”
Cautions broke out on the next handful of restart attempts, allowing Matthews’ team to fix his car so he could rejoin the field. He went on to recover for a sixth place finish. While Matthews had the fastest car all day, he took the sixth place finish in stride.
“Cautions happened at the right time for us there,” Matthews remarked. “I was able to get my crew to hustle and get back on the track. Didn’t get the toe back right but it was fun doing it. It’s not too bad because we were here to win.
“I know we had the fastest car out there but you can’t win them all. The fastest car doesn’t always win. That’s just how it goes sometimes.”
When Matthews wrecked initially, the damage to the car appeared to be much worse visibly. While the head-on hit didn’t do severe damage to the car, Matthews said breaking a tie-rod is a pretty big deal.
“A broken tie-rod is a lot of damage,” Matthews said. “That’s why we went in the wall right there because our right front was going wherever it wanted to go. They kept the hood off so we could adjust it easier. Wore the tires out but toe being like that, not going to help tire wear at all.”
Matthews was making his second start at Carteret County Speedway. He scored a win in his first start at the track back on July 6th.
Matthews is continuing to enjoy a breakthrough season, scoring wins at all three Eastern North Carolina tracks (Carteret, East Carolina and Southern National) and finds himself fourth in NASCAR Whelen All-American Series North Carolina state points.
