Sporting a patriotic new body and following with a career-best run made Gary Densham the No. 1 qualifier in Funny Car in the opening round of the Winternationals. Unfortunately Densham's moment of joy quickly turned to heartache.

The part which counted couldn't have been much better, as Densham rocketed to a 4.053 at 307.09 mph during the lone qualifying session at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona.

Sporting a patriotic new body and following with a career-best run made Gary Densham the No. 1 qualifier in Funny Car in the opening round of the Winternationals. Unfortunately Densham's moment of joy quickly turned to heartache.

The part which counted couldn't have been much better, as Densham rocketed to a 4.053 at 307.09 mph during the lone qualifying session at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona.

However, things went awry from there, as the chutes didn't open, sending Densham off the track and into the sand. There wasn't significant damage, but a body Densham spent all winter working on is now gone after one run.

Densham describes in detail what happened on the run in this video feature.

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