John Force Kenny Bernstein crash, Force injured

[ORIGLS6]

Probably not the cone, but more likely one of the photocells or another piece of the timing equipment. Once one of those tires comes apart it rips up everything around it. That's what ripped the rear part of the body apart, and activated the chutes.

[Verne_Frantz]

That's the way it looked to me Dennis. As soon as that cone (or what-ever was with it) hit the tire, it exploded. Bernstein also seemed to be all over the track and appeared to cross the centerline earlier in the race as well. I guess he didn't know he did that, or he should have shut down right away and saved his equipment, knowing he'd be disqualified anyway.

Verne

[NCGuy68]

Bernstien said he tried to keep his car going straight.

See his comments at www.NHRA.com

[Verne_Frantz]

Thanks for posting that Craig. The article also said that from other angles viewed, the cone went behind the tire. Too hard to tell from a front view..

Verne

[GRB]

Somebody will have a picture. Those tires don't normally just explode on their own.

[Verne_Frantz]

In the comments by Force on the NHRA site, he said his chassis came apart. I"ve heard they're changed chassis designs to address the tire shake issue, and they may have also incorporated a "break-away" feature to get the driver away from the engine in the event of a serious accident. Just repeating what I"ve heard...

Venre

[SS427]

That is fact as they did redesign it after their driver was killed earlier this year. It was designed to seperate just behind the rear engine plate. Now the question is did the tire explode causing the chassis to seperate or did the chassis seperate prematurely causing the tire to explode?