What’s one of the scarier things you can imagine happening while driving around in your everyday life. I have to imagine that losing your steering wheel is one of them. Even if you’re cruising around at 25 mph in your local residential neighborhood or driving by yourself down an empty country road, that would be a frightening experience.
Now imagine that happening in a NASCAR race during competition.
That’s exactly what happened to Dale Earnhardt Jr. yesterday at Talledega. Thankfully, it happened to Earnhardt under caution and not under green flag conditions, which are roughly the equivalent of rush hour traffic traveling at 200 mph.
Here’s the harrowing video:
Earnhardt said he was actually able to steer with the column before he reattached the wheel. How he could even process what was happening and connect just one dot after “STEERING WHEEL COMES OFF” is remarkable.
Earnhardt also crashed twice in the race and ended up finishing in 40th place in what had to be one of the crazier days a NASCAR driver has ever had.
