Big John with the BIG hurt!

[Bob Parmenter]

Tune into ESPN at 7:00 eastern for the update on Forces crash with Bernstein. At last report he was alert, two broken legs, and a broken arm!

[Dave Severson]

Yup, they just announced it during the NASCAR race, too... Way big ouch!!!!

[pro70z28]

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/...goryId=2378529


It was a bad crash for sure. Prayers go out for his recovery.

[Dave Severson]

Nasty wreck! All things considered, John is in pretty good shape!!!!

[Bob Parmenter]

Latest is broken left ankle, broken left wrist, broken fingers on right hand, and possible damaged ligaments right knee. Not bad considering..............but looking at a fairly long recovery I'd guess.

[Dave Severson]

Yup, that was about the nastiest funny car wreck I've seen! Right up there with Schumacker's dragster wreck a couple years back.

[pro70z28]

First thing i thought about was Eric.

[Dave Severson]

Been a tough year for team Force. Bet they'll all be glad when this one is over.....

[Henry Rifle]

Wonder what blew. I didn't see the blower hop. Maybe the clutch cut the car in half. KB was concerned about crossing the centerline. It looks like he did, but didn't cause the wreck. Something in Force's car let loose big time.

[Dave Severson]

Almost looked like a tire went first...no idea how that would result in a car broke in half though...?

[pro70z28]

I think Henry is on the right track. Clutch explosion. I'm sure they will go over everything in the next few days to find exactly what happened.

I've heard stories of the cone causing the problem but KB in his report said he hit the cone with his back tire, and John won the race. So, that cone would have had to fly forward into a 315 mph breeze to hit john's car. I think the cone went behind john's car. I've watched that clip many times and everything happened very fast, but I think John's car is coming apart before the cone flies into his lane? I could be wrong.

[Dave Severson]

Well, the funny cars are designed to break at the engine plate...Maybe when he got into the wall the car just did what it was supposed to????

Got a kick out of it when they interviewed Robert Hight, he said John was in the helicopter giving orders, and asked if he'd won!!!!!! A real racer's racer, huh???

[gassersrule_196]

looks to me it cut one of those POS goodyear slicks that goodyear keeps pushing off on the nhra fuel guys

[Yellow72]

Just watched several replays on ESPN2 and the car actually came apart when the chute deployed, before the car turned right.
The front of the car(from the motor forward) was all that hit the wall, the cockpit stayed in the left lane with John onboard.

[pro70z28]

That is what we saw in the posted footage too. Just haven't heard what actually cut the chassis in half?