The Fenderless Division

Editor

By the end of the race, there were no fewer than three cars running without any scrap of a front clip left, and the No. 78 had substantial portions of rear sheetmetal removed as well. Who says Sprint Cup cars can’t take a beating? Today’s race saw a record-setting 12 cautions and 7 lead-changes–a sharp departure from the typically more sedate racing at this low-speed road course, the carnage was attributable in part to the new double-file restarts. The field looked like it had just spent Saturday night at the short track by the time the whole thing was over. See more after the jump.

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Logano’s Toyota was not only looking chewed up by the end of the race–it was slowing down, sounding horrible, and blowing puffs of smoke. It was down at least a cylinder or two, and was lucky to avoid a DNF (Joey finished 33rd).

Someone dropped some major sheetmetal in Turn 7a after a light wreck toward the end of the race, but it didn’t bring out the caution.

Hard to believe Menard’s car could run without dragging on the ground with the front splitter this demolished.

Kurt Busch just looked bent.

Kyle Busch got his entire front clip replaced after getting wrecked, which he followed up with his customary tantrum-and-a-sulk routine.

Jeff Burton’s rear sheet metal spent about half the race coming apart.

Brad Keselowski sustained heavy damage after hitting the tire wall.

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Posted at 6:30 pm in Infineon Raceway, Jen Dunnaway, Motorsports, NASCAR, Valvoline

Comments

SouthernGuy8503
Jun 21, 2010 at 4:02 pm

Gordon*** just saw i messed his name up, but also it’s harder to turn a 3,400 lb car that can’t turn to good compared to an 1,800 lb car thats made to turn on a dime with about 10 wings on it (open wheel car). it’s like going on a road course in a ZR1 Vette and then in a Buick, which you think will be easier? lol

adrienness
Jun 21, 2010 at 2:48 am

such kind of could be dangerous for life.

Bick66
Jun 20, 2010 at 9:43 pm

I’ve thought about these guys running on a road-course and realized that either oval or road-course would be more difficult if it’s not what you were used to running. These NASCAR road-course races are kinda novel.

SouthernGuy8503
Jun 20, 2010 at 8:10 pm

nes – that what it looks like at other tracks to like short tracks. just cause they mainly make left turns don’t mean they can’t turn right. plus some teams use “road course ringers” just for road courses and they make the same mistakes to as the NASCAR usuals. and to be honest it might be harder to drive on ovals because road courses you hardly pass, just a lot of follow the leader, but on ovals it’s a lot of passing and fighting for positions when compared to road courses. plus it’s same NASCAR drivers that had never drove road courses before NASCAR and are really good at them like Jeff Gordan and he still made mistakes.

___nes___
Jun 20, 2010 at 7:59 pm

so that’s what happens when you put right turns on the track. These pictures make it hard for me to believe the old “it’s just as hard to drive in circles as it is to road race”