Things got a bit sporty for NHRA Pro Modified racer Lyle Barnett during Friday’s qualifying session at the Menard’s NHRA Nationals in Topeka, Kansas. Barnett admitted it’s the second wreck he’s had this week. 

“I had gotten rear-ended on Tuesday back home leaving work to come here,” Barnett said. “So I don’t know if I should quit for this weekend and just count my blessings or try to shake this monkey off. But we’re going to go to Q3 in the morning; hope for the best.”

An apparently broken throttle body led to a hung throttle and forced Barnett into the right lane retaining wall after his car crossed lanes. He was able to avoid Jose Gonzalez, who was having issues of his own. Barnett was uninjured in the dust-up. 

“It was a combination of just bad luck,” Barnett admitted. “We’ve been struggling today and couldn’t really figure out what was going on. It turns out we had a throttle body broken. Yeah, I was not on a great run at all, but I just wanted to get something half respectable on the board. But I went through the finish line and chopped out of the throttle; the throttle hung wide open. 

“We had one throttle body broke open, one shut. The throttle was wide open. I reached up to cut the power off about the same time Jose had gotten out of shape, came over in my lane, and I just grabbed a little too much brake pedal. 

“Just a lot of things going on with the throttle being hung and Jose being out of shape in front of me. So really nothing I could do, just bad luck.”

Barnett remains confident the Elite HP crew will have the car repaired in time for Saturday’s qualifying. 

“It’s really not bad,” Barnett said of the cosmetic damage to the front end and left rear. “In fact, we’re going to patch it together and see the rest of these boys in Q3 in the morning. A little bit of red duct tape and some carbon work, we’re going to be good to go.”