LOL, I was going to post about the incestuous nature of regional short track racing, but you beat me to it!
Most pit areas seem to have family trees with very few branches. The crew chief is married to the car owners sister, and the driver is the track owners nephew, that sort of thing.
Then there's the ****ual politics. At least one well known Knoxville Nationals winner was caught en flagrante' with a certain King Of California's wife several years ago, and the youngest son of said king bears more than a passing resemblance to said Nationals winner.
Anyway, the drama is always at least as much fun as the racing!
Your irony point is spot on:
In this case, it seems that young Lee Jacobs, scion of one of Ohio's greatest racing families, knew at the first of the year that Ms. Crocker would be taking over his seat for most August, and Lee's father Kenny 'The Mouse' Jacobs appears to have known late last week that Lee was through, as did the crew chief.
Hey, at least they didn't just dump his helmet bag and racing seat in the pits and tear ass out of there, stranding him several hundred miles from home.
And yeah, that has happened to a few guys, LOL.