4 days ago
NHRA Funny Car Driver Okay After Massive Explosion at Sonoma
NHRA driver Dan Wilkerson, amazingly, popped from his Funny Car with a smile on his face following a massive engine explosion during the evening qualifying session for the Denso Nationals at Northern California's Sonoma Raceway on Friday alongside Chad Green (the driver for whom he used to be crew chief), Wilkerson managed to stay out of Green's path, hitting the wall in his own he and his own father/crew chief Tim Wilkerson took the spectacular blow-up in stride.
'I didn't know where Chad was. I didn't know where I was. It was right in my face,' Dan Wilkerson said. "I've never been so happy to hit the wall in my entire frickin' life. The worst part is scaring everybody. I hate to scare my friends, the fans, my guys. And now we've got a bunch of work to do – that's the second part that sucks.'Tim Wilkerson said, 'It had some type of mechanical failure. We'll figure it out. Daniel's OK – that's what matters. We can put the parts back in it. We know the risks. We talk about it all the time. This is a dangerous car – there's no doubt about it. That's part of this racing, unfortunately. You're going to get that every once in awhile.'
