Anatomy of a NASCAR Crash
Aug. 7 -- It took just 3.5 seconds for Mike Harmon's No. 44 Chevy to be crushed, shredded and torn in half. In that time, he narrowly escaped death — twice.
To the astonishment of the people watching, Harmon got up and walked away from what was left of his car, and then returned later in the day to resume racing.
The crash — at a practice session for the Food City 250 in August 2002 — is regarded as the worst wreck in NASCAR history that a driver survived.
The dangers of motor racing were underlined by the high-profile death of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt in February 2001. Although NASCAR made safety changes and there have been no fatal crashes in its top three series since then, drivers are aware of the ever-present dangers. They don't tend to talk much about crashes, but they bow their heads at the prayer services that are held before every race.
Racing in a Brand New Car
On the morning of Aug. 22, thoughts of an accident were, as usual, far from Harmon's mind as he prepared for the practice session at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.
"The only time I think of it is if I'm already in a crash and it's time to survive," he says.
Instead, he was focused on his brand new car, a Chevrolet with a mile and a half on the odometer, and how it would perform in practice laps for the Busch Series event to be held the next day. Harmon and his team — one of the smaller outfits in NASCAR, with just one sponsor — had been fine-tuning the car for the Food City 250.
90 MPH and Out of Control
Twenty minutes into the practice session, Harmon was on his fourth lap of the half-mile track. He was hitting 90 mph as he entered Turn 2, when the car suddenly veered right — toward the outside wall.
Slow motion videotape would later show that debris was coming off the front right of the car, and witnesses reported hearing a pop — signs that Harmon's front right tire might have blown.
But all Harmon knew at the time was that he had lost control of the car and was going to hit the wall. He braced for the impact and told himself, "This is not going to be good."
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