Mayhem at Talladega...and it's not even raceday!
Danni
There is a reason why Talladega and Daytona are impound races. NASCAR does not want to watch the drivers take each other out in practice, so they hold two sessions instead of three and schedule them before qualifying. Unfortunately, this method isn't foolproof and today misfortune struck hard.
In first practice, Dale Jr. was drafting as usual, hooking up with teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. All of a sudden, he jumped out of line and fell back. I thought at first he was dropping to the tail end of the pack to later evaluate the car's passing ability. Then I saw the smoke. "He's blowing up!" I groaned. The commentators lifted my hopes a bit when they suggested a tire rub, but the longer Junior rode around the more apparent it was that he had an engine failure. Swapping an engine automatically relegates a team to the back of the starting grid. It wasn't too upsetting because if anyone can draft from the rear to the lead, it's Junior!
I was less than optimistic following "Happy" Hour, however. Junior, with a fresh motor, was practicing some bump-drafting and then lead a small pack of cars. All of a sudden, his right rear tire exploded, causing the #88 car to spin down the banking into the paths of other drivers. Aside from being unhappy, I was stunned at the fashion of this blowout. It was strikingly similar to the incident at Dover, but the entire decklid and rear panel flew off, leaving the wing hanging by some type of tether. The car was absolutely demolished. Not a good day when you lose both an engine and a car in one day! Luckily for June, he works for Hendrick Motorsports - a backup car is often just as good as the primary.
The tire failure not only affected Junior, though. David Gilliland, who was right behind Junior, was also heavily damaged along with Kasey Kahne. Tony Stewart got into it and took a ride through the grass (for the second week in a row) but the team elected not to go to a backup. And then there was David Reutimann! When I first noticed during a replay that he drove by with his right front fender bent up, I was shocked he even got involved - he was way behind the initial crash. Thankfully SPEED decided to give him an interview. David said that he was slowing down, indicating and everything, and he got run into from behind "five minutes later". The cameras then showed the rear end of the #44 with the bumper pushed in so far it must have bent the rear clip! The primary was not fixable.
It's so disappointing because the car seemed really good and unlike HMS, MWR's backups may not be as good. David was clearly bothered by the situation, but I know Ryan Pemberton and the guys will do their best to give him a good car for Sunday.
Still, the front end damage was unexplained until Clint Bowyer was interviewed. I hadn't even realized he was caught up in the crash, but he said that he was fine until the #44 just ran into the back of him.
After getting over my annoyance at the nastiness in his voice, I was able to add up what happened. In some of the replays, the second pack of cars could be seen. When Junior's debris flew all over the place, David moved up the track to slow down. A dark car could be seen behind David's, coming fast. I'm guessing it was either Denny Hamlin or Brian Vickers. The dark car must have hit David while he was decelerating, causing him to turn down the track and somehow get into the back of Bowyer. I have a hunch it was Hamlin, since he seems to have a problem slowing down in the first place. While everyone else was checking up, he zipped around cars like a bat out of hell. But the replays mostly looked at Junior (obviously) so it was difficult to see what was happening beyond him.
Ugh.
So what caused this whole mess in the first place? Junior had only 13 laps (make up your own bad luck omen) on the tires, making it improbable that there was excessive wear, especially on a track as smooth as Dega. The tire must have been cut by some type of debris, and a large piece at that.
But uncertainties increased as the ARCA race unfolded. ARCA uses a completely different tire (Hoosier) than NASCAR, but just about every caution was due to tires blowing out, many of which were right rears.
They would explode with very few laps on them. Were race officials failing to clean the track off? It seemed to get progressively worse as the race went on.
Man. Talladega is bad enough with the Big One. But now possible mystery tire issues?
In first practice, Dale Jr. was drafting as usual, hooking up with teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. All of a sudden, he jumped out of line and fell back. I thought at first he was dropping to the tail end of the pack to later evaluate the car's passing ability. Then I saw the smoke. "He's blowing up!" I groaned. The commentators lifted my hopes a bit when they suggested a tire rub, but the longer Junior rode around the more apparent it was that he had an engine failure. Swapping an engine automatically relegates a team to the back of the starting grid. It wasn't too upsetting because if anyone can draft from the rear to the lead, it's Junior!
I was less than optimistic following "Happy" Hour, however. Junior, with a fresh motor, was practicing some bump-drafting and then lead a small pack of cars. All of a sudden, his right rear tire exploded, causing the #88 car to spin down the banking into the paths of other drivers. Aside from being unhappy, I was stunned at the fashion of this blowout. It was strikingly similar to the incident at Dover, but the entire decklid and rear panel flew off, leaving the wing hanging by some type of tether. The car was absolutely demolished. Not a good day when you lose both an engine and a car in one day! Luckily for June, he works for Hendrick Motorsports - a backup car is often just as good as the primary.
The tire failure not only affected Junior, though. David Gilliland, who was right behind Junior, was also heavily damaged along with Kasey Kahne. Tony Stewart got into it and took a ride through the grass (for the second week in a row) but the team elected not to go to a backup. And then there was David Reutimann! When I first noticed during a replay that he drove by with his right front fender bent up, I was shocked he even got involved - he was way behind the initial crash. Thankfully SPEED decided to give him an interview. David said that he was slowing down, indicating and everything, and he got run into from behind "five minutes later". The cameras then showed the rear end of the #44 with the bumper pushed in so far it must have bent the rear clip! The primary was not fixable.
It's so disappointing because the car seemed really good and unlike HMS, MWR's backups may not be as good. David was clearly bothered by the situation, but I know Ryan Pemberton and the guys will do their best to give him a good car for Sunday.Still, the front end damage was unexplained until Clint Bowyer was interviewed. I hadn't even realized he was caught up in the crash, but he said that he was fine until the #44 just ran into the back of him.
After getting over my annoyance at the nastiness in his voice, I was able to add up what happened. In some of the replays, the second pack of cars could be seen. When Junior's debris flew all over the place, David moved up the track to slow down. A dark car could be seen behind David's, coming fast. I'm guessing it was either Denny Hamlin or Brian Vickers. The dark car must have hit David while he was decelerating, causing him to turn down the track and somehow get into the back of Bowyer. I have a hunch it was Hamlin, since he seems to have a problem slowing down in the first place. While everyone else was checking up, he zipped around cars like a bat out of hell. But the replays mostly looked at Junior (obviously) so it was difficult to see what was happening beyond him.
Ugh.
So what caused this whole mess in the first place? Junior had only 13 laps (make up your own bad luck omen) on the tires, making it improbable that there was excessive wear, especially on a track as smooth as Dega. The tire must have been cut by some type of debris, and a large piece at that.
But uncertainties increased as the ARCA race unfolded. ARCA uses a completely different tire (Hoosier) than NASCAR, but just about every caution was due to tires blowing out, many of which were right rears.
They would explode with very few laps on them. Were race officials failing to clean the track off? It seemed to get progressively worse as the race went on.Man. Talladega is bad enough with the Big One. But now possible mystery tire issues?
