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Mr. Ford95 · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 1933 Location: Orange, VA

Anyone catch that crash of Mike McDowell during Friday's Cup qualifying? Mean crash that without the Safer barriers and the new car and the head and neck system, he would be dead. Broke the Safer wall to pieces after piling head-on into the wall at about 190. He entered Turn 1 at about 200 and the car jumped loose, he tried to save it and overcorrected real badly turning himself head-on into the wall. The only saving grace was that he still had a lot of lateral movement and did not come to dead stop due to the Safer barrier acting as more a bounceback device. The car continued moving around the track instead of just stopping within a 100 feet of the impact zone.

Yahoo Sports is saying NASCAR may want to look into parking him due to inexperience at the lower levels. Yes, he raced ARCA and did great but their thing is, he only raced a couple of Truck and Busch races before going into the Cup car and his resume is not as long as Sam Hornish, Franchitti or Montoya. Inexperience did have a part in the crash but not for the reason they are getting at in my view. He said he felt something funny coming off of Turn 4, a driver with experience would have instantly aborted lap 2 and slowed way down going into 1. An experienced driver needing to make a 2nd lap in order to get into the race would have stayed after it but they would have done the opposite reaction of McDowell. The old adage for young drivers is to simply turn the wheel left and lock it down. Had he done that instead of trying to save it, he might have backed into the wall and it would have been at a much slower speed. What Yahoo Sports is getting at, is that he has no business being out there in the first place because he was a little spooked by the speed they were carrying going off into the corners and that he needs to run the lower levels first. The kid raced open wheel for a bit, speed isn't the problem. It was the fact he was in a car that is unpredictable and even the seasoned vets never know what is going to happen each time they go off into the corner. That is what spooked him just like it did to the vets at Atlanta on the hard tire.

flood · Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 607 Location: tennesse

if you look at the video you will see a wisp of wheel smoke out of the right rear just before he lost it "cut tire....?" a$$ swings right he countered it then it hooked hard right. could also have been caused by hitting the speey dry they had put on the track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4oSZIm3YAw&NR=1

but no matter what caused it it's hard to believe he walked away...!

Mr. Ford95 · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 1933 Location: Orange, VA

I agree Flood, first thing I thought when I saw the replay(I missed seeing qualifying live, I even missed the replay of qualifying later Friday night.) I wish I had seen it to hear what DW and Larry Mac thought. I have never seen wisps of smoke come from a car running thru speedy dry like that. It was tire smoke, speedy dry isn't pure white like that when it gets kicked up and he said he felt something coming off of 4. Problem is, can't see it slow enough to see how that right rear tire was as he turned head-on into the wall. He made a fatal mistake and luckily walked away from it. He jacked that wheel dead right to try and save it and the front tires caught, when they caught it launched him. I've never driven a race car but being a racing family, you never jack the wheel one way and hold it there when trying to save a wrecking car. You feed the wheel to it, aka do what JJ was doing at Atlanta, "swatting flies." You juke it right to save it but then juke back left a little bit just in case it catches and you keep doing that because when it does catch, you do not want it dead right if your trying to keep the rear end from swinging out to the right on you.

flood · Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 607 Location: tennesse

check out this video http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2008/04/04/cup.tex.quals.mcdowell.nascar/index.html?MostPopular on the 2nd replay if you stop it just after he starts to lose it until just before he hit the wall i don't see a skidmake from the right rear tire. you can see it from the left tire but not the right
that and the wisp of smoke just before is why i think he cut a tire

you may also want to check this out
http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2008/04/03/sirius.stewart.burton.nascar/index.html?MostPopular

irishfan466 · Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 19 Location: Oklahoma

This has to be one of the worst wrecks I have ever seen in NASCAR. I have to agree with Mr. Ford95, without the new car and barriers, this crash may have had a different outcome. I was critical of the new car, but not anymore.

Mr. Ford95 · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 1933 Location: Orange, VA

Saw some better video on Speed, the right rear was still holding air even after the crash. Grumblings are that the track had a wet spot there(possibly a weeper??) Texas' Turn 1 has been notorious for having weepers.

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