Top Fuel driver T.J. Zizzo walked away from a high speed accident during Saturday’s first qualifying

session. An engine explosion reportedly sent shrapnel into his one-run old left Goodyear tire puncturing it and forcing him over into the wall.

“I didn’t even have enough time to get scared,” Zizzo said. “I was talking to my crew while I was sliding down the track. This was my first accident in 17 years of racing.”

Top Fuel driver loses engine and tire in first run of season ...

Top Fuel driver T.J. Zizzo walked away from a high speed accident during Saturday’s first qualifying

session. An engine explosion reportedly sent shrapnel into his one-run old left Goodyear tire puncturing it and forcing him over into the wall.

“I didn’t even have enough time to get scared,” Zizzo said. “I was talking to my crew while I was sliding down the track. This was my first accident in 17 years of racing.”

Remarkably, Zizzo was able to qualify sixth on the run with a 4.740 elapsed time.

Crew chief Tony Zizzo was able to diagnose the cause of the accident rather easily based on the evidence presented.

“The car was set up conservative and somewhere before the finish line, at a thousand foot or so, the engine went lean because of the BDK valve,” Tony Zizzo said. “It kicked the rods out and hurt a few more engine parts. It blew the blower.

“I’m almost certain a piece of the blower casing pierced the tire. The tire came off and part of the tire hit the front of the car. TJ worked the car over towards the wall and slid it in gently to shave off some of the speed. We did end up breaking the front controls doing this.”

Zizzo had no reason to believe all hell was going to break loose just before the finish line. Even when the tire let go, the impact was minimal to the driver.

“The car left the line really lazy and it started trucking pretty fast,” Zizzo recalled. “The car started laying over just a touch past a thousand feet, I didn’t feel an engine explosion, but I did feel the car cut down a tire pretty fast. As I went through the lights, I felt the tire let go and I tried to steer it the best I could. I hit the wall and came to a nice screeching halt.”

No driver ever wants to crash, but Zizzo believes his first accident was the exception to the standard.

“The crash was as simple as a 300-mph crash can get,” Zizzo said. “If all of them were that simple, this would be an easy sport. I came away from this accident very fortunate. To be able to walk away from that virtually painless except my left hand and my neck. Other than that, I am just fine.

“Safety Solutions came through for us on this one. I credit them with being able to walk away.”