After being taken out of an ASA STARS National Tour race in Toledo, Ohio by eventual seventh place finisher Billy VanMeter, Matt Tifft approached VanMeter’s team in the pits.
As he approached the team to discuss the incident, things turned physical. Members of VanMeter’s crew responded to Tifft swinging at VanMeter, and it turned into a brutal physical altercation. The 28-year-old Fairfax, Virginia native was put into a headlock before being thrown to the ground.
But if that wasn’t enough, Bryan Glaze, a crew member from VanMeter’s team, proceed to kick Tifft in the face while he was being held down.
While physical altercations are never necessarily a good thing, they are not uncommon in racing and typically don’t lead to any significant disciplinary action. Emotions can run high, and everybody has pretty much accepted that.
But this was different; this was a crew member kicking a defenseless human being in the face while he was being held to the ground. Tifft was certainly no innocent bystander, though he later stated that he had no intention of starting a fight when he approached VanMeter.
Tifft was not initially planning on pressing charges, but he has since been reassessing his stance on the matter, noting that a change in heart would be because he wants to help save others from having to deal with this particular type of individual in the pits.
Glaze issued an apology on social media, stating he “honestly thought he [Tifft] just knocked my little brother Billy out”. Although a video later produced by the VanMeter team showed that there was a physical altercation between the two, that was never the case. Glaze has since been dismissed by the team.
This is apparently not the first time Glaze has acted in a matter that is “not acceptable”, which could further influence Tifft’s decision to press charges.
