They were the type of crashes no one wants to see. With under 100 laps to go in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway Saturday night, Jamie McMurray, in fourth at the time, crashed hard into the turn 4 wall on lap 150. His Chevy caught fire and rolled down pit road on fire before coming to a stop. McMurray was pulled from the smoking car by his crew and was able to walk away.
McMurray said he wasn’t sure what happened.
“I just entered Turn 3 and I heard a small pop,” he said. “Then just lost all the steering and got into the fence and then knocked the oil lines and everything off which caused the fire. I’m not sure we didn’t really have any tire issues all weekend. Keith (Rodden, crew chief) had been kind of reporting to me what the tires looked like after each stop and hadn’t seen any really wear issues at all. I don’t know if it was just a bad tire or if I ran over something. Just lost all the air and ended up crashing.”
The worst crash of the night occurred just over 30 laps later. MORE>>>
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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