What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, unless the NHRA’s tech department disqualifies you.
The NHRA disqualified four Pro Stock cars from Friday’s Q2 session at the NHRA Nevada Nationals for technical violation after bypassing a safety device. .
All four disqualified runs were from Elite Performance cars, including No. 1 qualifier Erica Enders. Jeg Coughlin Jr., Aaron Stanfield, and Jerry Tucker also had their runs thrown out.
“There was a check on a safety system, had nothing to do with performance that should have been done at the beginning of the race if the tech department was set the way it should be,” said team owner Richard Freeman. “It was just a wiring deal on the safety part of the Leahy [device, the automatic shutoff required on professional race cars]. There’s some confusion on how it should be done with some of the problems that were earlier this year and it wasn’t done to their liking.”
Earlier in the season, Enders had an issue at Gainesville where the Leahy device malfunctioned and shut her car off, causing her to lose the first round. Apparently, Friday’s tech issue could be traced to ensuring the same malfunction didn’t happen again.
Freeman didn’t feel the NHRA’s decision to disqualify his cars was part of a witch hunt, a term bantered by some following the Tony Stewart / McPhillips Racing disqualification in Charlotte. Freeman said he believes the situation was avoidable and could have saved his drivers grief and embarrassment.
“My program’s always been one that’s been scrutinized, and it’s probably because of a bunch of rednecks that do pretty well at what we do,” Freeman said. “So for me, it’s not that big a deal for someone like Erica who has to deal with the repercussions of stupid s***. That’s really the issue. But it ain’t going to affect us one way or the other. And we will try to do what they want done. Again, it should have been handled, in my opinion, in a different way, but it is what it is.”
NHRA declined any further comment on the issue.