At least it wasn’t flying chairs again.
NASCAR was in Nashville this weekend for what turned out to be one of the best races of the Cup Series season so far. Denny Hamlin started from the pole but was penalized for jumping the start of the race, but managed to drive back through the field and take home his third win of the season after an epic battle with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe.
The race marked the first time NASCAR has run its new lower downforce, higher horsepower package at Nashville Superspeedway, which made for some amazing racing – but it also resulted in some problems for the teams and their equipment.
Several drivers suffered from brake rotor failures due to the increased speeds and higher loads on the brakes, resulting in some hard crashes for Connor Zilisch, Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger and Chris Buescher. Ryan Preece also saw his night ruined when a piece of Chastain’s brake rotor ended up busting his radiator. But he wasn’t the only one who had to worry about flying debris.
Several fans were also reportedly hit by flying pieces of the brake rotor, with one fan taking to Reddit to post a picture of the debris:
“My wife had to go to the medical tent along with some other fans. A couple are bleeding. We think it’s from the Chastain incident.”
And yet another said he had a piece of rotor fall down his shirt while walking around the track:
Yikes.
Now, obviously this is a risk you take when you go to a NASCAR race (that’s why you agree to a waiver when you buy a ticket), and thankfully it sounds like the injuries were pretty minor. It’s extremely rare for someone to get injured by flying debris at NASCAR races, which just goes to show you how safe the sport has become not just for drivers but for fans, crew, and everyone else at the track.
The exploding brake rotors resulted in extended cautions to clean up the track, and though it may have been annoying for fans, it goes to show you exactly why it’s important for NASCAR to take their time and make sure there’s no debris left on the track that could potentially cause another wreck or even fly into the stands and injure somebody.
Speaking on his brake rotor failure, AJ Allmendinger said he wasn’t sure why it was such a problem this year:
“The pedals never went soft and I didn’t feel like I was over-using the brakes, so it was a shock when it happened. Obviously we’ve seen that’s been an issue here. I don’t know if it’s lower downforce or carrying more speed with more horsepower down the straightaway and you’re using more brake. I’ve never felt like this is a heavy braking race track in general, so I’m not really sure.”
I can say that standing on pit road you could definitely see the rotors glowing pretty bright, and Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez both reported experiencing brake issues but managed to avoid having any catastrophic failures.
Whatever the problem was, it made for great racing – and apparently a memorable night for some fans.
