UPDATED: NO QUICK ANSWERS AFTER D-WILK’S CRASH
more questions are prevalent than answers. There’s a strong likelihood the cause of the second-generation drag racer’s crash might not be determined for several weeks, if at all.
Tim Wilkerson, Daniel's father and owner of the Funny Car, said he’s in the dark about what caused the crash and after watching the video and looking over the car, still wonders about his son’s first round accident while racing against veteran Ron Capps.
“I really don’t have an idea,” said Wilkerson, who was working Wednesday afternoon in preparation for this weekend’s NHRA Virginia Nationals. “With these back to back races, I barely have time to do anything. I have already talked to Stange, and he wants the wheels and the hubs.
UPDATE: NHRA RELEASES PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
Two days after Daniel Wilkerson’s horrific crash at the NHRA Midsouth Nationals in Memphis, Tenn., 
more questions are prevalent than answers. There’s a strong likelihood the cause of the second-generation drag racer’s crash might not be determined for several weeks, if at all.
Tim Wilkerson, Daniel's father and owner of the Funny Car, said he’s in the dark about what caused the crash and after watching the video and looking over the car, still wonders about his son’s first round accident while racing against veteran Ron Capps.
“I really don’t have an idea,” said Wilkerson, who was working Wednesday afternoon in preparation for this weekend’s NHRA Virginia Nationals. “With these back to back races, I barely have time to do anything. I have already talked to Stange, and he wants the wheels and the hubs.
“It’s hard to say [what happened] because other teams have broken studs from time to time. It happens from time to time, but that was pretty bizarre right there. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore.
“I don’t know if you’re ever going to find out for sure, right now. We’re going to try and find out everything we can.”
During the run, video shows the right wheel detaching from the car. The car makes a sharp turn to the left and the wheel on the left side detaches.
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Jeff Stange, President of Strange Engineering, manufacturer of the rearend on Wilkerson’s car, has
Stange does have a theory in mind but until he receives the equipment, his theory is just that – an educated guess. The closest example he has to compare Daniel’s accident is Joe Hartley’s 2007 NHRA Springnationals accident in Houston, Tex.
“In the Hartley failure, it was because the wheel wasn’t clamped to the hub,” Stange explained. “If the wheel is clamped, the stud is mostly in shear with a small component of bending load. If the wheel is loose, or comes loose, and there’s play between the wheel and the hub, then it applies a tremendous leveraged bending load to the stud. The further away the wheel moves from the stud (hub face) the greater the leveraged bending and the more likely a failure would result."
“A number of things could cause that … whether the nut was bottomed out on the shoulder of the stud or the nut was seated on the radius portion of the spot face of the wheel and permitted a proper torque, even though the wheel wasn’t clamped."
This is just the initial thought without any evidence.
“The Hartley information gives us a starting point, but I think it is unfair to Tim, Daniel and our community for us to make that assumption,” Stange added. “All I have is a good YouTube.com video and input from Tim, [Fred] Mandoline and NHRA. The bottom line is we want to weigh all the factors that may have contributed to the problem and work quickly with NHRA, other manufactures, and the crews to prevent this from happening to anyone again."
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Wilkerson said Daniel is expected to begin dismantling the remnants of the race car on Thursday in 
an effort to help the team with a diagnosis. He confirmed the team will then transport the chassis to builder Murf McKinney and for the most part, the Shelby Cobra Mustang body on loan from tech-mate Bob Tasca is not salvageable.
“We will have the car apart and the NHRA still has all of the studs,” Wilkerson added. “I’m going to get all of that stuff together and then … poof.”
Wilkerson hopes the remnants of the car will go a long way in easing his mind as to what happened on Monday afternoon in Memphis. The race team owner and tuner in him seeks an answer. The father in him, is just glad that he’s got a son that walked away with no injuries.
“I’m doing okay with it today,” Wilkerson pointed out.
Will he put his kid back in a car?
“Oh sure,” answered Wilkerson without hesitation. “That don’t bother me. I’m just trying to make sure that the rest of our rear ends don’t have the same problem. Or if it was just an error on someone’s part.”
Wilkerson believes that his son, without extensive nitro driving experience, handled the car in the same fashion a seasoned veteran would have. The father pointed out there’s not much difference in how he would have handled the incident.
“He was pretty much a passenger when the thing came off,” Wilkerson explained. “I really believe he did all he could do. Looking at the run on video and looking at the computer information, I really don’t see where he could have done anything else.
“As soon as he got in trouble, he was steering it the other way and off the gas pedal, according to the data. I don’t know what the hell I would have done any different.”
The one thing Wilkerson pointed out that drew his fatherly wrath was his son not following the safety protocol that mandated he pushed the kill switch, which in turn would have shut the car off and deployed the parachute.
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“He told me it happened so fast,” Wilkerson said. “He said that as he was turning the steering wheel 
and reaching for the brake, that he couldn’t get to the button.”
Wilkerson paused and reflected, “I think if it had been going straight, it might not have been as hard to get to the button. There wasn’t he could have done since it turned right and he was trying to keep it from sliding out. He was aware of what was going on and that’s all I can ask for.”
Wilkerson credits the safety measures taken by the NHRA and the sacrifices made by Eric Medlen and Scott Kalitta as the sole reason Daniel is still alive today.
“The chassis did what it was supposed to do,” Wilkerson said. “I made him go to the doctor and they gave him a CAT scan. Outside of the sinus infection, his brain looks as fine as it ever did.
“He's a young man with a lot of strength, and he was absolutely fine after the deal. His old man probably wouldn't have jumped out the car and ran around like he did, but he's young and resilient.
"Now he knows, first-hand, what these cars can do to you, and even though he always has had a ton of respect for any car he's raced, I know he has even a little bit more now. You can go your whole career without something that bad happening, so he's got that behind him."
"I've known, for a long time, how serious this business is. That's why we hand-pick a crew that takes it as seriously as our guys do. There's no messing around in our pit, because you're working on a beast that can take everything from you."
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