Once again, the conspiracy theorists are wrong. The pins were not left in the parachutes. The parachute cables were, but not because of any negligence.

Though not an official NHRA statement, NHRA announcer Alan Reinhart provided insight during Joe Castello's WFO Radio Show as to why the parachutes on John Force's Funny Car failed to deploy during a horrendous accident on June 23, 2024, in Dinwiddie, Va. 

Reinhart revealed in a conversation with NHRA's Lonnie Grim that the Leahy Device, that safety system that automatically triggers the parachute under specific scenarios worked as it was supposed to. However, in this instance, extreme damage to the area surrounding the parachute mechanism caused it not to work as designed.  

"In this instance, when the engine exploded in the milliseconds between when the system triggered and sent the signal, and the system did trigger, and the system did send the signal, and the air cylinder did activate, but in a split second, while all this was going on, the area between the two was compromised," Reinhart explained. "So now the levers are so much closer that when the cylinder activated, it didn't pull far enough to get the parachute wires to come out of the pack because this area of the car was compromised. The cylinder was closer to levers, and therefore, when the cylinder activated, it just simply didn't have enough pull. Never happened before. And we've seen how many times when something blows up, even when the body blows off, or those things happen."

Reinhart explained that once this was determined, NHRA officials went to the other teams to explain the situation. They were reportedly encouraged to inspect their systems and investigate if there could be a better way to avoid a similar situation. 

Will this lead to a rule adjustment for installation? Reinhart said Grim told him he didn't know. 

Reinhart reiterated the rarity of the system failure, emphasizing that this is a unique incident in the history of motorsports. This should instill confidence in the audience about the overall safety of the sport. 

"Let them decide what's best for their driver, for their car. All of these race teams have got some pretty smart people. And I think personally, if you go to them and say, 'Here's the problem, find a solution - that's better than just one person saying, 'Okay, here's what we're going to do."

NHRA has confirmed that the John Force crash and its aftermath are still under investigation. The NHRA said once the results are finalized, they will be released.