Pro Modified racer Mason Wright left Route 66 Raceway after his late Friday crash during qualifying for the NHRA’s Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 Nationals.
Reportedly sore but otherwise unhurt, Wright opted to finish the weekend at home with family at Odessa, Texas. His car slammed into the wall, showed a flash of fire, flipped onto its roof and wound up in the right lane in the shutdown area.
His friend and fellow Pro Mod racer Lyle Barnett, who was in the other lane, had trouble with his own car and didn’t go the full quarter-mile. But when he saw Wright’s car get out of the groove and everything that ensued, Barnett sprinted down the track to check on him.
Barnett said that tearing down the track was “just really a natural reaction, I think. Mason’s a buddy of mine. That’s my old team that I’ve raced with the past two years, and Mason’s now racing for him [Richard Freeman, owner of the Elite Motorsports Chevy]. And I know those guys.
“And honestly, the crash is one thing, the fire’s another,” said Barnett, who recovered from serious burns in a 2015 accident. “… I wasn’t really thinking about it. I just kind of took off and went down there and probably shouldn’t have. That’s the Safety Safari’s job. But I just did – and Mason’s OK, and that’s really all that matters. Thankfully, my car did not make the run, and I had aborted way early, so we didn’t get together.”
However, he said, “So I got a front-row seat to something pretty scary. There wasn’t a whole lot of fire, but there was a big flash of it. It was enough to get your attention. But the most important thing is that Mason is OK. The car can be fixed. And I’m sure you’ll see him back out before the year is over, but just glad he is OK.”
He said he didn’t have any flashbacks to his own hellish experience from the Lights Out 6 event at South Georgia Motorsports Park almost eight years ago. According to reports, Barnett’s car suffered an electronics failure that caused his engine to explode. Barnett was trapped inside his burning car for 28 seconds, and the temperature was an estimated 1,500 degrees. By the time the car stopped and he was able to escape, he had second- and third-degree burns to about 15 percent of his body, with heavy damage to his hands and face.
The following June, Barnett was back in a race car. On Saturday, he didn’t let what would have been a reasonable aversion to fire keep him from rushing to his friend’s aid in a split second.
“I wouldn’t say I had flashbacks, it was really just more that I wanted to go make sure he was OK. That fire’s some scary stuff,” Barnett said. “And the Safety Safari reacted very fast, got the fire out, got Mason out, and there’s really minimal fire damage to the car itself. So, just glad he is OK.
“I saw him this morning at the hotel. He was sore, but he was ready to get home and see his family, which I completely understand,” Barnett said. “And, like I said, I think you’ll see him before the year’s up.”
