2013 Races 1 and 2 (Smash Beer 200)

Decent day for the Leckliter duo

In front of their hometown, the Leckliter duo managed to both get top 15 finishes, Daniel finished 12th and Robert finished 4th.

Daniel: "At least got a good finish out of it, the crowd at least saw me finish the race."

Robert: "You wimps suck, I make it look easy, No seriously, you all suck!"

Kinasa's season starts off horribly.

Andrea Kinasa's tribute season starts off terrible when she completed...ZERO laps bue to a piston failure.

Kinasa wasn't available for comment as she was in her motorcoach watching anime.

Zins retires early, blames Team Burr

"THE KILLBOTS AT TEAM BURR THOUGHT THEY COULD GET ME TODAY! WELL THINK AGAIN! I CAN SEE THROUGH YOUR ACT! EVERY TIME I GOT NEAR THOSE ROBOCOMMIES THEY TRIED TO WRECK ME JUST IN CASE THE CYANIDE PELLET THEY PUT IN MY ENGINE DIDN'T KILL ME FIRST!"

Interview format again. For a more in-depth story, check the Matthews Motorsports thread in Fan Punditry.

Matthews disappointed in DNF, irritated at fellow drivers
What happened out there?
"Got in a wreck. *laughs* No, seriously. I saw Bell get into Finkelberg on the apron, and I thought I was in the clear. But he came up right in front of me and I had nowhere to go. It's just a racing deal, but boy, it seemed like people were more interested in crashing than racing."

You were in the Master Cup Series last season. What's the biggest difference between there and ARLA?
"Better drivers. I'm not joking. It's like night and day. Don't get me wrong, these guys and gals here are pretty good, but there are too many drivers that are more content with getting in the way than actual racing. So it's an adjustment for me."

Looking forward to Daytona?
"Yeah. That's one track where our Lenard V6 engine should be able to show its stuff. I'm hoping we can get back on track there."

Alexander frustrated at "what could've been"

After getting as high as 2nd in the race, Gregory Alexander was taken out on lap 49 in a wreck not of his own doing, resulting in only a 19th place finish. As bummed out as he was, he did tell us this.

"We had a pretty hectic race out there, getting dumped once and caught up in other people's messes twice. We were doing really well out there for what we had. It was a chance for us to get some big points today, and because some guys out there wanna act like f***ing idiots and wreck all the damn time we lost out big. Would we have won? No, we missed the setup by a mile and those TDR cars are too damn good, but to be taken out while running in such a good position as we were is just sickening. Well, at least the engine didn't quit on us again so we seem to have solved THAT issue."

Alexander wasn't too happy with some of his fellow drivers, most notably Benji Flynn and Robert Nelson, and told us that they'd both be getting some payback handed to them in the near future.

Smash Beer 200 Penalties

#90- ASHLEY TUCKER, BJORN GREEN RACING
-Loss of 20 championship points, start in the rear of the field in next race for unsafe pit release, aggressive driving

#42- LAURA CYRUS, RACERS WITH DISABILITIES
-Loss of 15 championship points for failure to maintain a reasonable speed under yellow flags

#40- MEGAN DRIVER, TERRA INT'L MOTORSPORTS
-Loss of 15 championship points, start in rear of field in next race for causing an avoidable collision under yellow flags

#86X- IKE DURBIN, IKE DURBIN, INC.
-Loss of 15 championship points, start in rear of field in next race for causing an avoidable collision under yellow flags

#31- RAMSEY COQUINNER, EICHHOLTZ-ATLANTIC RACING
-Loss of 15 championship points, start in rear of field in next race for causing an avoidable collision under yellow flags

#100- TOM BRAYTON, THE RACING TEAM
-Loss of 15 championship points, start in rear of field in next race for causing an avoidable collision under yellow flags

#51- JASON BATES, KURT WALKER MOTORSPORTS WITH KARL'S SUPERSTORES
-Loss of 15 championship points for unsafe pit release

#14- BIGSBY FOOTE, POWER STEERING, INC.
-Loss of 20 championship points, start in rear of field in next race for causing an avoidable collision in the pit lane

#82- LEV AZAROV/RADOMIR STANOYTCHEV, RUS AUTOSPORT
-Loss of 15 championship points, start in rear of field in next race for causing an avoidable collision under yellow flags
-Driver placed on probation until December 31, 2013 for use of a mobile device under race conditions.

The points standings that were just posted reflect these penalties.

Wow, looks like a record for the most drivers to be hit a penalty or more after a race weekend.

9 drivers wow and question on the 82 car is it radomir stanoytchev or lev azarov that is going to be on probation or both drivers

Full points standings won't load for me.

Me Either

you two aren't the only ones...

Walker clarifies ban on mobile devices

In the wake of Lev Azarov's admission to composing a Tweet at the time of his accident with Leslie Riggs under yellow flags, ARLA CEO Jen Walker sent a message to all drivers and teams reiterating the fact that the use of mobile devices during races is banned by the ARLA rulebook.

Walker stated that "not only is the use of such devices a dangerous distraction, but they can also be used to activate other systems prohibited by the ARLA rulebook".

Walker told the media that she intends to repeat this message in the pre-race driver's briefings for the rest of the year. Lev Azarov was penalized 15 points and placed on probation for the incident.

Power Sums Up ARLA Opener In One Word: "Brutal"

The ARLA Elite Series kicked off the 2013 season at the USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida and William Power, owner of the 2012 AES season championship team Power Steering Incorporated, saw all three of his entries fail to finish the race. "It was brutal. Plain and simple. There are many ways to start off a season, and this is definitely among the very worst of them. That was a sad display out there tonight-- and we contributed to it!" Power stated.

"A lot of things went on in the second race and we were involved in some of it to be sure," Power continued. "We had hoped to pick up right where we left off with all that momentum carrying over, but now we've definitely dug a hole for ourselves. We proved last year that it can be done, but why make it harder than it has to be?" pondered Power.

Things looked promising for the PSI stable early on as all 3 teammates lined up behind each other in the 2, 4, and 6 slots in the outside lane. But before 2 laps had been completed, defending series champion Rip Tyler found himself being slammed into the wall by the #36 car of Benji Flynn. Tyler continued on, but off the lead lap, effectively ending his night almost right from the outset. "Not a great way to launch the season with my new sponsor, Leapin' Lizard, on board," said a noticeably dejected Tyler. "We've proven we can rebound from things like this and now we'll have to prove it all over again. Nothing's going to be given to you out there."

Libby Bell, got involved in a couple of skirmishes caused by the shenanigans of others. "Well, this royally pisses me off!" said a rather excited Bell. "When you bring a new sponsor to the table, such as LiberTea for Women, you really want impress them early so that they feel their investment was worth it-- but on a night like tonight, it might make them wonder if they made the right decision. I don't need to be worrying about crap like this!"

Bell was clearly hard on the brakes and dove onto the apron to avoid Herbie Finkelberg and scrubbed him slightly when the #116 car of Ryan Matthews plowed into the #66 of Finkelberg forcing him to roll over. Later, the #51 car of Jason Bates would get into the #18 car of Scott Dalitz who in turn crashed Bell into the outside wall ending her night early as well.

PSI's third driver, Bigby Foote probably had the worst of it though. Foote was in involved in not one but two pit lane incidents and was docked 20 championship points and will be forced to start in rear of field in next race at Daytona. The first occurred when Foote, according to OEN announcers, speared the #84 car of Lucy Barnton in the door as he tried to enter his stall. Later in the race Barnton ran Scott Dalitz off into the grass later in the race as well as caused another caution by hooking Dalitz and sweeping across the front of Foote and putting Michael Madrigal into the wall. The second pit incident happened when the #51 of Jason Bates helped create a tiny melee that encompassed 3 stalls and 4 cars. (Foote, Bates, the #90 of Ashley Tucker, and the #π of Madrigal.)

"I don't think these pit things happened by accident," exclaimed the usually docile Foote. "I knew there'd be a target on our backs this year, but come on! After the first two pit stops, our #14 SasqWATCH car came out second and then first! My crew was kicking some major butt tonight. Then these 2 incidents happened and I think it was on purpose. I hope ARLA will either clarify the rule or adopt a rule against "loitering" in the stalls. If you got a problem, that's one thing, but to sit and wait and then deliberately interfere with my access to my stall is another thing entirely. I brought this up when we went to the hauler and I can only hope it didn't fall on deaf ears.This really blows because I think we had the car to beat!"

William Power, his hands rubbing the temples and forehead as if to massage away a massive headache, commented, "We had two of our cars taken out in wrecks-- twice! in two different incidents! It was just a rough night all around, but with the added pressure of trying to repeat-- it was just ugly."

The second incident Power was referring to was when the #42 of Laura Cyrus inexplicably slowed down of the track while taking another of the many caution flags on the evening. That incident forced both Tyler and Foote to get hard on the brakes. In accordion effect style, Foote collided the #71 of Rachel Rainsford with Tyler rear ending Foote. Then the #86X of Ike Durbin plowed into the back of Tyler's machine and back into Foote the second time and that forced the defending champion to the garage and eventually out of the race. Foote was also involved in another late race pileup that finally but the #14 car out of it's misery as well.