Garrett Smith didn’t know how else to summarize why he’d been forced to relinquish Saturday’s pole at Golden Isles Speedway and been put to the tail for the start of the 60-lap, $25,000-to-win main event.

“We had a huge mistake,” Smith said, his words with traced with disbelief and dejection. “I don’t even know what to say. Just not paying attention to the tire rule as a team, and pulling up to the grid with a wrong tire.”

The reason Smith had been ultimately penalized upon arriving to the staging lane for the finale of the Super Bowl of Racing is because he presented his car to Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series officials race-ready with an NLMT-3 compound on the right-front tire. The series rule for Georgia-Florida Speedweeks is an NLMT-2 on the right-front — the softest of Hoosier Racing Tire’s three compounds among the national tours.

So, in a moment’s time, Smith went from his best shot to find victory lane since breaking through to win the 2022 Dirt Track World Championship and proving that last year’s winless season was only a sophomore slump to starting dead-last in 28th.

Smith finished Saturday’s feature 21st and the last car on the lead lap. He drove most of the race upset and confused why he was sent to the tail. It wasn’t until the race ended he was informed of what happened.

“It was the last-second. … I was in the car and they were changing it,” Smith said of the turn of events that went down in the staging lane. "We didn’t really have time to see what they’re putting on. But I don’t know, man. Just a crappy deal for nobody paying attention.”

For full disclosure, Smith couldn’t keep the pole position by virtue of winning the first heat race of the night because once a driver presents their car race-ready at the staging lane, no changes can be made unless series officials say otherwise.

Up to that point, Smith was excited to contend with second-starting Ricky Thornton Jr. and show that his early speed (he captured fast-time honors on Saturday) isn’t just reserved for two laps in qualifying.

“The officials told me I had already presented my car,” said Smith, who plans to sit out Tuesday and Wednesday races at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway before possibly returning to All-Tech Raceway in Lake City, Fla., on Friday and Saturday. “Once I changed tires, you have to go to the rear. Just very unfortunate.”