RIMBEY, AB – Veteran racers and race fans were visibly confused Sunday evening at Central Alberta Raceways (Fire & Flood Oval) when Team NPP driver Josh Shuflada was DQ’d in the Feature.  “The car was running so well and everything was going so good and then track officials decided to screw me over.”  Shuflada was making his Team NPP debut at the Rimbey, Alberta facility.  His race day started extremely strong with two dominating Heat race wins Sunday afternoon in the Northern Provincial Pipelines/RCE #81 Dodge.

The Duel in the Dirt Super Stock Feature saw 11-cars take the green flag.  Shuflada started third but dropped several spots in the opening laps after getting out of shape down the back straight.  The Edson, Alberta driver gained two spots back the next few laps.  At the tail end of Lap-7, Shuflada, running fourth, went hard into turn three and was tagged from behind by another driver.  Both cars slowed and were briefly fused together but broke apart coming out of turn 4 and carried on down the front straight.  What appeared to be just an on-track racing incident between two drivers was not according to track officials.  Shuflada was shown the black flag the next lap.  “The track started coming around in the main,” exclaims Shuflada, “seven laps in you get kicked out of the race for getting hit from behind.”  Shuflada drove to his pit stall and was a spectator the rest of the Feature.  “You get totally screwed out of something that could have been so good.  I don’t even know what to say.  I really don’t.  Super frustrated right now.”

Only five cars finished the Feature.  Team NPP congratulates Powell River, British Columbia’s Billy Kearns, who avoided all on-track incidents and took the checkered flag for the second year in a row in the Creative Rusty Stuff #71 Chevrolet.  Josh Shuflada’s father Terry, making his official racing debut, overcame an early race spin and crossed the finish line in fifth in the RCE #4 Dodge.  Ironically, Josh Shuflada drove to a 5th place finish in his racing debut in Rimbey last year, in the same RCE #4 Dodge.

Josh Shuflada will now repair the damage to his Team NPP #81 Dodge and prepare for his next race event.  Shuflada heads to Rocky Mountain Speedway on the September long weekend.