Alexis DeJoria's Toyota Camry body is equipped with technology Kalitta Motorsports hopes will replace the tethering systems made optional by the NHRA last July. On the side of the Funny Car are two side-mounted carbon fiber panels attached to hinges intended to relieve pressure in the event of an engine explosion. The intent is for the device to remain attached to the body.

The engineering of this system was the collaborative effort between DeJoria's crew chief Tommy Delago, co-crew chief Glenn Huszar, DHK Funny Car tuner Jon Oberhofer and engineers from Toyota.

“With all the problems we’ve had with bodies going up in the air and into the grandstands, we have worked hard on devising a plan to relieve some of the pressure underneath the body if we should have an engine explosion,” said Kalitta Motorsports General Manager Jim Oberhofer. “The team put this on the car during testing to ensure performance wasn’t disrupted by having these on the car. It’s a learning experience. We do have a couple of things we need to fix on it.”

The Camry body sporting the side burst panels is the first Toyota made for Kalitta Motorsports and debuted in 2011. The placement of the preventative configuration was carefully planned.

“We talked to the Toyota aero engineers and asked them where would be the best place on the body to install them,” explained Oberhofer. “We might have overdone this a bit, but we will see. We’re going to keep working with it and testing. Hopefully down the road it will be implemented into the new Camry bodies. Hopefully those will look a bit nicer.”

Oberhofer believed his team needed to do their part for the race fans.

“We needed to do something to protect our fans,” Oberhofer said. “In case something bad happens, we have got to take care of our fans. We have to protect our drivers as well. We hope this provides the best of both worlds.

“Connie [Kalitta] and I had the same question … how do you test it?”

And, if the opportunity to test the new unit never presents itself, Oberhofer won't be disappointed.

“We really hope we don’t have to test it, but in reality this is a design in theory,” Oberhofer said. “We will find out whether it works or not.”

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