Rodger Brogdon originally believed the Pontiac GXP he crashed in the shutdown area of Gateway International Raceway had seen its last days on the drag strip. His assessment of the shattered race car was wrong.

Within 24 hours, Brogdon and the Steve Kent Racing team will take delivery of a rebuilt race car from Jerry Haas Race Cars. He'll race the car at the NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga., located outside of Atlanta.

 

Rodger Brogdon originally believed the Pontiac GXP he crashed in the shutdown area of Gateway International Raceway had seen its last days on the drag strip. His assessment of the shattered race car was wrong.

Within 24 hours, Brogdon and the Steve Kent Racing team will take delivery of a rebuilt race car from Jerry Haas Race Cars. He'll race the car at the NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga., located outside of Atlanta.

“I have to admit as I hit wall after wall and then it catching on fire, I believed the odds of running the same car were pretty slim,” Brogdon admitted. “But then again, I probably had other things on my mind at the time.”

Brogdon, fresh off a career best No. 2 qualifying effort, was racing Justin Humphreys during the first round of the NHRA Midwest Nationals when he drifted outside of the groove, rolling the car onto its roof and impacting the guard wall. The car caught fire, however Brogdon was extracted from the car without injury.

Brogdon cannot say enough about the incredible job Haas and his team pulled off repairing the race car.

“It’s a heck of a deal that Jerry Haas and his crew pulled off,” Brogdon said. “They had guys at Jerry’s shop who worked non-stop to make this happen.

Brogdon said the decision to rebuild the car fell squarely on the shoulders of crew chief Tommy Utt and Haas. The car was delivered to Haas’ shot just hours after the incident and by Mother’s Day was on its way to the paint shop.

The car required a whole new front-half of the chassis and a complete new body.

“The car will also have the same engine in it too,” Brogdon explained. “If you go back and look at the video, it never really put a lot on the engine. The carburetors were sent to Bob Book. The struts were sent to Lamb. There was probably about 100 people who pulled together to make this happen.”

If it didn’t come to fruition, Brogdon was prepared to bring out last season’s Charter-sponsored race car, one which proved to be two hundredths of a second slower than the crashed car.

Friday afternoon when qualifying gets underway for the NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga., Brogdon will release the clutch in the same car for the first time since the accident.

“We’re going to go over the car front to back and make sure all the nuts and bolts are tight,” Brogdon said. “I may even go back and double check myself, just for my peace of mind. I’m ready to get back in the car.

“I’ve crashed before but this was the first time I’ve ever gotten on my roof and caught on fire. I know that I need to get in that car as fast as I can. The more you wait, the more you have to think about what it’s going to be like. It’s just best to get in there and get it over with. I might be a bit gun-shy my first few runs, especially when I get about that 1,000 foot mark.”