Moyer takes SportMod win after Gustin weighs light

FARLEY - With big money on the line at a special event, emotions tend to run high.

That's especially true at the weigh-in scales and the tech barn. At last night's Aftermarket Nationals at Farley Speedway, the winner on the track had the big check taken away in Sport Mod after Jenae Gustin weighed in five pounds light at the scales.

Austin Moyer inherited the win, but not before a huge crowd gathered around the scales, Gustin atop her car, protesting the validity of the scales' reading.

'I was four pounds light, and you can't legally pay anybody at a race in the state of Iowa off a scale that's not state certified,” Gustin said. 'Even Austin Moyer himself said they're off. I stepped on either end, and there's 10 pounds difference from the back to the middle to the front. It's completely inconsistent.

'Everybody here seems to be crying about it except Austin Moyer, so thanks to him. It is what it is. I plain out drove all of them. You can't say five pounds did that.”

Gustin had the field covered in the $2,000-to-win, 25-lap A-main, beating Moyer to the line by a full straightaway.

But the ruling at the scales stood, and Moyer took home the check. Even if the scales were off - and many surrounding the scales attested to the fact that the scales seemed inconsistent all night - the official at the scales had to go by what read out on the scale pad.

Every other driver in the top five hit the required 2,500 pounds needed to make weight.

'I was right at 2,500 when I came in the first time,” Moyer said. 'I had to come back around and weigh again, and I was right at 2,500 again. Obviously Jenae was a little lighter than I was, and the rules are the rules.”

Moyer essentially fell back on the old racing adage, 'it's the same for everybody.”

Oftentimes racers will pull across the scales early in the night to check what they're reading out to be sure they make weight. Many times a track scale can read different than ones racers have back in their shop at home. If racers don't take that opportunity at the track, Moyer said, that's on them.

'You've got the scale at the track. Everyone's got the opportunity to drive across the scale before the feature (to check) and obviously everyone should've done that because it was a little funny,” Moyer said. 'But you still have to make 2,500 pounds. That's what it is. We'll take it any way we can get it.”

Gustin could at least take away from the night that she's back in the form she showed early in 2015.

An up-and-down start to summer plagued the Marshalltown driver, who ran second to Moyer in this event last year.

'The car was great, and it's nice to know I can out-drive 25 other guys on a dry-slick track top to bottom,” Gustin said. 'The car's running real good. I'll go over the scales, complain and hopefully get all these tracks state certified.”

Moyer felt for Gustin - especially for coming so close - but he's certainly not apologizing for getting the win. He's on a part-time schedule this season, and has four wins in the five races he's entered.

'Obviously they're upset, but it is what it is and the officials make the call,” Moyer said. 'I feel like I was the second place car, and had I gotten that I was happy with it. But if they're going to enforce the rules - which is what they need to do - that's the deal. She didn't make weight.

'We'll take it.”

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