ARCA driver Sean Hingorani suspended one race after wrecking teammate

Watching the ARCA Menards Series race at Mid-Ohio you could tell Sean Hingorani had some disciplinary action coming. After leading laps in the race, Hingorani and his teammate, NASCAR driver Dean Thompson, got into one another. Hingorani went down a lap and intentionally sought out Thompson to wreck him on the final lap of the race as he was being lapped.

Venturini Motorsports is going to be having a tough team meeting today. You just don’t see teammates wreck one another this way.

ARCA announced on Monday that the 16-year-old Hingorani is going to be suspended for one race and be placed on suspension for the rest of the year. That will keep him from competing at Iowa Speedway this week on July 15.

“The penalty is for violation of 2023 ARCA Rulebook Section 12-8.1,” ARCA said in a statement, “which references ARCA Member Conduct Guidelines, and Section C and D, which reference intentionally wrecking another vehicle, premeditatedly removing another competitor from contention when not racing for position and waiting for another competitor and then taking action.”

Here is what went down between teammates on Saturday.

Things got ✨spicy✨ between these two teammates pic.twitter.com/Lgs0OEN1Y5

— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) July 8, 2023

Was the move on Hingorani good? No, it wasn’t. However, you have to settle that after the race if that is your teammate. You definitely don’t take a top-3 finish from your teammate as you are a lap down and wait to wreck him.

Hopefully, Sean Hingorani learns from this and is able to grow as a driver. He’s very young and has a lot to learn moving forward.

Sean Hingorani gets big backlash after Dean Thompson incident

This whole incident is a bad look for both drivers. However, Sean Hingorani is going to take the brunt of it because of his retaliation. Fans online and elsewhere were not happy with what they saw from the young Venturini Motorsports driver. Team owner Billy Venturini sure wasn’t happy.

Ryan Preece, Cup Series driver for Stewart-Haas Racing in the No. 41 was announcing the race on Saturday. He didn’t like what he saw at all.

“All you kids watching right now wanting to get to this level, don’t do that,” Preece said. “Race with respect. Don’t wreck the guy in the outside trying if you’re win your first race. It doesn’t get you anywhere. Don’t be like that.”

Dean Thompson is a Truck Series driver. He races ARCA to get extra laps when they line up with his usual series. Sean Hingorani could learn from Thompson who is also a young driver. But they will both need to get along off and on the track first.