TALLADEGA, Ala. – Friday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway was a double-edged sword for Jamie McMurray.
McMurray posted the fastest overall lap across two 50-minute sessions of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at the 2.66-mile, high-banked tri-oval and then barrel-rolled six times during the closing minutes of the final round.
Chip Ganassi Racing confirmed that a left-rear tire failure caused McMurray’s car to break loose down the backstretch, where it was hit by Ryan Newman’s machine before turning over and flipping wildly, catching a portion of the inside catchfence in the process before coming to rest on its side.
“As a race car driver, those are the worst positions you can get put in,” McMurray said after being checked and released from the infield care center. “When you cut a right front tire and see the wall coming, you know what those impacts are going to be and you know how to brace yourself, but when you’re tumbling, you can’t tell where the impact is going to come from. You also don’t know when it stops if there’s going to be more cars coming.”
“I blew a left rear tire out,” McMurray added. “When you’re going that fast and you go sideways … you kind of know someone is going to hit you.”
McMurray admitted that he stopped looking when his car started to go over.
“When I realized I was going to flip, I actually shut my eyes because I didn’t really want to see what was getting ready to happen,” noted McMurray. “It just kept going; it seemed like forever. … I was just thankful when it finally quit. … A couple of times I thought it was going to be over and it just kept going.
“I’ve been lifted up before, but I have never like barrel rolled like that. Ironically, the impacts were much less than I expected … because you’re just getting beat around when you’re flipping like that. The biggest struggle is that you can’t tell where the hits are coming from. When you blow a tire out or something, you know how to brace yourself for that and what you are going to feel, but in this case things were spinning so fast at one point that I couldn’t tell what was up and what was down.”
Newman said after climbing from his car that he had no time to react as McMurray’s car came down the track.
“Jamie just cut a left-rear tire and turned sideways in front of me. I had nowhere to go and no time to adjust,” explained Newman. “I hit him and flipped his car over, unfortunately. It could have been a really simple deal, but instead we have a car airborne and flipped. It sucks and we hate it, but we will get another Caterpillar Chevrolet ready for tomorrow’s qualifying and the race on Sunday.”
Both McMurray and Newman will go to backup cars, as will Daniel Suarez and Ty Dillon, who made contact in the aftermath of McMurray’s flip. Dillon ended up spinning in the middle of the backstretch.
All told, that quartet accounted for four of the fastest six speeds in Friday practice for NASCAR’s top series.
Dillon was second-fastest (47.031/203.610) in the No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, followed by Suarez in third (47.154/203.079) with the No. 19 Arris Toyota. Only three drivers cracked the 203 mile per hour bracket.
Erik Jones and Martin Truex Jr. were fourth and fifth, respectively, on the speed charts. Newman completed the top six.
In a notable run for the lower-budget teams, Brendan Gaughan and Beard Motorsports ended final practice eighth on the board with the No. 62 Beard Oil/South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet.
Qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is slated for 1 p.m. Eastern time Saturday, with live television coverage on FOX.
