Driver dad fighting Ricky Brooks at World Series resolved as a misunderstanding

A driver’s father physically confronted lead technical inspector Ricky Brooks on Tuesday night during the Super Late Model portion of the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna Speedway.

Canadian racer Nicholas Naugle was turning laps outside of the top-15 when the penultimate caution waved for Harrison Burton spinning off Turn 4 at the historic half-mile. Naugle was attempting to clean-off his tires and sped by the pace buggy once he was done.

That drew the ire of race control, whom disqualified Naugle and ordered him to pit road for dangerous driving near safety workers inside the buggy. Brooks then walked over to pit road to explain to the driver why he was getting parked for the night.

The car stopped and Brooks pulled down Naugle’s safety net, but was met by the driver’s father, Bryan Naugle. He immediately grappled with the notorious technical inspector and ended-up on the ground, swarmed by officials and various crew members.

@MattWeaverAW pic.twitter.com/STT2SgmgNh

— Tanner Berryhill (@tannerberryhill) February 14, 2018

As it turns out, the elder Naugle didn’t know who Brooks was, and thought a stranger was trying to reach in and harm his son. Nicholas Nagle and spotter Travis Braden met with race director Rusty Crews after the event had concluded, quickly resolving the issue. A Naugle team representative simply called it ‘a misunderstanding.’

No additional punishment will be levied against the team and the Naugles are expected to compete for the remainder of Speedweeks.

Crews said he attempted to communicate a warning to the spotter but he never received the directive. That’s when the decision was made to park the Naugle No. 08.

“I think the dad just misunderstood something because Ricky only took the window net down to talk to him,” Crews said. “And I don’t know what happened. Those guys are real nice guys and I don’t think they meant any harm.

“I guess if it were my kid and I thought someone was about to hit my kid, it might have happened too. We all talked it over. The kid is good. The only issue we had with him was speeding around the safety workers.”

For his part, Brooks doesn’t expect to hold a grudge.

“It’s not a big deal,” Brooks said. “He thought I was trying to hurt his kid. He didn’t know who I was. We’ll be back tomorrow .”

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