Even through the glass windows of the luxury suites at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the loud blast sounded like the explosion of an artillery shell. In reality, what happened on Lap 232 of Sundays Ford EcoBoost 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race was the detonation on the right rear tire on Paul Menards #27 Menards Chevy. The force of the explosion blew the entire wheel assembly off the car and engulfed the crew in black smoke. The trouble for Menard began with a Lap 194 restart, when the outside line stalled. Menard rammed series champion Jimmie Johnson and in turn was hit from behind, sustaining damage to the rear of his car. ‘On that restart, everybody kind of checked up, and we got some right rear damage and had a flat tire’ Menard explained. ‘I guess a bunch of rubber got wrapped up underneath around the axle. Came in a couple of times trying to fix the damage and try to get the rubber off. We didnt get it all, and I guess it just caught fire. I didnt really know it until there was a little bit of a spark coming in the car and landed on the window net; thought that was kind of weird. About a lap later they said I was on fire; I lost my brakes, then the damn wheel blew right off.” Menard was unhurt, and several of his crew members narrowly escaped injury from the flying wheel, but the car was done for the night.( NASCAR Wire Service )(11-18-2013) UPDATE: Team owner Richard Childress said Monday that his team was still uncertain what caused a pit-road explosion that blasted the No. 27 Chevrolet driven by Team owner Richard Childress said Monday that his team was still uncertain what caused a pit-road explosion that blasted the #27 Chevy driven by Paul Menard in the late stages of Sundays NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Childress, involved in the sport either as a driver or team owner for decades, remarked hed never seen anything like it. ‘No, never have’ Childress said Monday at a luncheon before the awards ceremony for NASCARs Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series. ‘Ive seen tires blow out before sitting right there on pit road, but nothing that turned into a fiery explosion. And we dont have the answer to it yet, so its really hard for me to comment on what happened.” Childress said his team would investigate the incident back at its Welcome, N.C., race shop and report its findings to NASCARs research and development department. ‘It caught on fire on the race track and built a lot of heat, tremendous amount of heat “ about like holding a blow torch on it with the wind blowing under the car and everything’ Childress said Monday. ‘It blew the whole hub, brake rotor, everything off of it. It didnt blow a tire, and thats why weve got to find out why it blew everything off the car.” Childress said the impact raised the hood and blew out the cars floorboard. While the damage to the car was severe, Childress said he was thankful that Menard, his crew and nearby NASCAR officials were uninjured.( NASCAR.com )
