With two races to go in the UARA-STARS series season, Newton will be on the sidelines after being suspended for an incident that happened under caution in the October 4th running of the Melling Select 150 at Greenville Pickens Speedway in Greenville, SC. The incident that got Newton suspended happened just after Newton found himself backed into the outside wall in turn one after contact from Late Model Stock Car veteran and 2008 UARA-STARS regular, Jamey Caudill.

Newton apparently felt that Caudill intentionally dumped him and with that in

mind got behind Caudill under caution and followed him to turn four then driving into the side of Caudill's car and even climbing up on the veterans mount before the two seperated and Newton hit the pits. Caudill had to hit the pits as well following the incident to fix the damage to his car thus costing him valuable track position and points as the veteran was trying to track down, Jake Crum for his first UARA-STARS series championship.

Caudill came into the season's 14th race at Greenville Pickens only 40 points back from JR Motorsports teammate, Richard Boswell, but following the incident with Newton and his 11th place finish after pitting to fix the damage the veteran driver is now 77 points back from points leader, Jake Crum. Caudill at the time of the incident with Newton was ahead of Crum and was on his way to gaining points on both Crum and Boswell, who had fallen out of the race.

Newton following the incident parked his torn up ride in the JR Motorsports pit stall, which was right beside of his, staring down the JR Motorsports crew as he climbed from his ride. No one on Caudill's crew even once made a gesture or spoke to Newton, they remained calm and one lap later Caudill himself came down pit road to fix the damage to his car. Following the race Caudill climbed from his car visibly upset according to sources at the scene and along with a couple members of his crew walked over to Newton's pit stall(keeping in mind they were parked about

four feet from one another) and attempted to have a conversation with Newton.

On several occassions words were exchanged between the two teams, but the situation never went too far, there were no punches thrown. Newton and Caudill and their teams were all upset, all of them felt the pain of the nights incidents, but the two teams kept their cool and did what is supposed to be done in this situation, they argued, but nothing more.

In a conversation with Newton this week he expressed his disapointment in the decision by UARA officials to suspend him and questioning the reasons behind

the move.

"I didn't punch him. No one on my team lost their cool, no one on his team lost their cool. I did what I did behind the wheel of the car, which is what you should do. If you get wrecked, the guy who wrecked you should have to fix his car too," said Newton.

"I understand us getting a fine, I would be OK with that, but to get suspended for that little incident is stupid. Earlier in the year we saw a brawl on the front stretch of one of the tracks and the five or six people in that deal simply got fined. We get together on the track and I'm suspended? Someone will have to do some explaining to make that one make sense, the only thing I can figure is it's who I got into with. I don't know," concluded Newton.

Newton has never denied what he did, if he had to over again would he have done something different? I don't know, only he knows the answer to that question. For Caudill's part in the incident, its simple, the two cars made contact. Was it intentional ... likely not, but Caudill doesn't

expect to be raced like that under caution, he wouldn't do it. He never has.

Did the UARA make the right call. YES, even Newton understands that, but what isn't clear is why the series now decides to

make an example out of someone. It's ironic that this incident which took place on October 4th, took place one day before a similar type of "ball/strike" call at Talladega SuperSpeedway in which NASCAR changed the way they call a race. No it wasn't an incident of two drivers getting together on the track first under green, then under caution, NASCAR had to make a decision on whether or not Regan Smith could win the race after going under the yellow line to pass Tony Stewart. Ultimately NASCAR decided to give the win to Stewart and penalized Smith, but the difference was that Smith made a move that has been allowed in the past, similarly to Newton's retaliation.

Newton hopefully will be the example of a new UARA, a move that will make the series more professional to the racing world. Going forward the UARA has set the tone ... on track retaliation will not be allowed and certainly if we see a scuffle on pit road(or brawl) as we seen back in April between Alex Yontz and Clay Greenfield's teams at Orange County, we're going to see them(the drivers and team members fighting) suspended. No more slapping on the wrist, no more looking the other way, the race at Greenville Pickens Speedway changed the way the UARA will handle situations .... I think?